A few weeks ago, I was shocked to witness a wee little mouse scamper into our loungeroom. It was the first time I had ever seen a mouse in my own house and I was embarassingly freaked out about it! I immediately went out and bought a couple of mouse traps and reluctantly set them that night. The next morning, I was secretly relieved to find that the traps had not gone off (even though the cheese was gone).
My husband then suggested that our best option would be to get another cat. We lost our dear old cat in April, and although I didn't feel ready for another, the thought of the mouse in the house prompted us to go to the local pet shelter and adopt young Kitty. Yes, I knew that 8 week-old Kitty would be too small to actually catch mice, but I guess I had assumed that her presence would be enough to scare the rodent off. Clearly I was wrong.
Last week, when I was tucking Miss Three into bed, I saw a mouse run into her room. I quickly grabbed the traps, cut a couple of pieces of cheese and set the traps. I think I must have trapped my thumbs about four or five times so my poor thumbs were absolutely aching afterwards...I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor mouse. I put one trap in Miss Three's room where I had seen the mouse hide, and the other trap I placed in the same cupboard in which I had set the traps previously.
Next morning, I checked the trap in Miss Three's room and once again found that the clever mouse had managed to pinch the cheese without the trap going off. I then checked the other trap...poor mouse :-(
For that whole day, I couldn't face opening the cupboard door. I didn't want to look at the poor little mouse. I waited until it was dark and placed the mouse, trap and all, in the bin (fortunately I had put the trap on a piece of paper so I didn't have to touch the trap itself). I was convinced that that was the end of our mouse troubles. Clearly I was wrong. Again.
This afternoon I went to get something out of the laundry cupboard. I noticed that there were some mouse droppings in the bottom of the cupboard so I set about cleaning the cupboard out. As I neared the bottom, a mouse suddenly shot out. After I had finished screaming, I ran and grabbed young Kitty and shut her in the laundry with the mouse, hoping that she'd sort the problem out. She didn't. The mouse was doing too good a job of hiding, so I grabbed a broom and started poking the stuff in the bottom of the cupboard and sure enough, it ran off. Unfortunately, the mouse ran one way (towards me - more screaming - I thought it was going to run up my leg), and Kitty ran the other. I think Kitty got more of a fright than I did!
So aside from setting another trap tonight (which may or may not go off) and waiting for Kitty to grow up and develop a viscous streak, I have absolutely no idea about what to do. If anyone out there knows of any other ways to rid your house of rodents, I would be very appreciative of suggestions.
