At some point, I had investigated a kinder, kill-free mouse trapping system. The condo pest control guy had left me with some glue traps but I wasn’t interested in finding a half-dead mouse struggling to escape certain death. Thanks to Amazon I had two blue plastic cylinders that offered a trap door entrance that snapped shut once the unsuspecting mouse ambled in to find where the delicious smell of peanut butter (my bait of choice) was coming from.
Right about the time the winter cold started I noticed how my cats did a lot of crouching and staring in the kitchen. They crouched and stared under the refrigerator. They crouched and stared under the stove. Before long, Alice took it upon herself to post up on the counter each night as the self-appointed kitchen sentry. Edgar has never been much of a lookout, but he’s always happy to offer his frenemy, Alice, support as needed.
Mouse hunting is quite the team effort around here, so I did my part and put out the blue no-kill traps. Two days later I had my first mouse. What a relief that it was in the trap and not in my bed.
Oh, how little I knew of the activities of the mouse world. On the morning of that first capture, I bundled up and let it go about half a block away.
The next day another mouse found its way to the peanut butter-no doubt he or she was surprised when the door slammed behind him. It took me about 5 minutes of internet research to find out when releasing a trapped mouse it’s important to drive it at least two miles away. Otherwise, it will just return to the food source.
Before long, I was the crazy lady pulling up by a community garden two miles away to release wayward mice. For a week or two, there was a steady stream of visitors. I like to think that all those vacationing in the crawl space were taking turns exploring and then when no one returned a search party was sent out. With a search party member missing, more mouseketeers had to go out on a recon mission and each mission went through my kitchen and ended in a blue cylinder that smelled like peanut butter.
Last week there was a two-mouse night. One alive in the trap, one dead at the bottom of the steps to greet me when I came downstairs for my morning coffee.
So…I think it’s time to call the contractor again.
And the next chapter? To fill in the blanks of the mouse who had to find his way back to your house from an epic half block away. Imagine the adventure.
ReplyDeleteOh Mary, this was hilarious! I could literally picture in my head the little mouse recon mission, and I laughed out loud at the crazy lady at the community garden. A good friend of mine had a squirrel problem. He actually spray painted a white stripe down their back so he'd know if the same ones were coming back!
ReplyDeleteI am laughing out loud right now. I’ll have to tell you the story of when our cat brought in a rat through his cat door and casually abandoned the very much alive and seemingly bionic rodent in the basement.
ReplyDeleteLove the image of the crazy lady doing catch and release missions by the community garden! My dad was a renowned live squirrel catcher who drove them to a wooded park several miles away. His response when I accused him of breaking up families? "I always release them in the same direction so they will find each other!"
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