News

We have a mouse in the work room. Jon spotted it, and we found evidence of it behind the bins of dog food. Little presents. (Yes, I mean mouse droppings.) I want to use a humane trap, and transport the mouse far away. It’s not the majority view, but every once in a great while I do use that presidential veto. Of course, if we do manage to trap it, I need to have some place picked out for it to go. No place springs to mind. Maybe I’m just delaying the mouse’s death. Or deciding whether it will be quick and sharp, or longer and less quick. If we put him, or her, out in unfamiliar territory will the mouse survive? Or will it fall to a predator, or even lack of food, if I choose the wrong place to release it? Funny, how a choice that seems kind can so often turn into a complicated mess for both the doer of the good deed and the person, or animal, the good deed doer is trying to help.
But, one way or the other, the mouse has to go. One mouse never remains alone for long, if the problem isn’t dealt with you end up with your own little colony and I am quite allergic to the wee things. It was one of the things that made me sick in the old house. Not to mention they got into boxes of books and feasted on the paper, and made it into nests. Most unpleasant. They also nested in my first husband’s computer. Shorted it out, eventually, but they’d been in there long enough to try to start a family. One of those stories that you have to see to believe. They electrocuted themselves though. No traps needed. Dead mice, and a mother board that melted. Again, what a mess.
Funny, I’m remembering all that went wrong when I didn’t want to use overly harsh methods last time. It was unpleasant, to say the least. Tomorrow we need a trap. I may still try for humane, but it’s got to be transported many miles away. The mistake I made years ago was releasing too close to the house. More worrisome, in some ways, then one mouse, is we can’t find where the mouse got into the house. If we don’t find the way in, this mouse will not be the last, even if the first mouse is gone. It’s nearing winter and the critters are looking for a nice, warm place to hole up for the cold to come. I can’t blame them, but I also can’t let them use our work room.
What is this? First, brown recluse spiders, now a mouse. I’d rather have the mouse, but still, I’d rather not have anything unwelcome in the house.