Mouse Story

We have mice in the basement.  Is that like bats in the belfry?  Anyway, the other night Jerry went downstairs to start the woodstove.  We had let it go out because the weather had gotten warmer for a few days.  He called upstairs for me to bring the cat downstairs quickly.  When I got down there with the cat, he told me that he had seen a mouse running back and forth across the floor.  We put the cat down on the floor and waited.  Of course, the mouse never made another appearance, the cat got bored and just wanted to be taken back upstairs.  Jerry set a trap but we didn't catch it that night.

Yesterday morning I went downstairs to fix the fire for the morning and the mouse ran out and watched me.  He (she?) just stood there and watched while I stirred the fire and put logs in it.  I stood there a while and we just stared at each other.  He was awfully cute, I must admit.  Just a tiny little brown thing.  Then it ran off.  I didn't see it again yesterday afternoon.

Last night I was downstairs putting logs on the fire again when Jerry came down and asked if I had checked the mouse trap.  I told him I hadn't yet, so he went over to it and told me that I might want to go upstairs if I didn't want to hear the ominous snap.  The mouse was actually on the trap, eating the cheese we had put there and the trap hadn't gone off yet.  Jerry stood there and waited while I went upstairs, not wanting to hear what would happen next.

Shortly afterwards Jerry came upstairs in disbelief.  He said the mouse had eaten some of the cheese off the trap while he was watching, and then ran off again.  Andy said that there are probably mouse friends hanging out down there and the one that dared to eat the cheese off the trap said to another mouse, "Hey Steve, watch me mess with this guy watching me!"

This morning I was sitting at my desk working when I heard it.  The ominous snap.  After I finished working I went downstairs to get the trap but when I got down there, there was a little brown mouse sitting right in front of the woodstove hearth just staring at me.  I laughed and told him that he somehow managed to get out of the trap again (yes, I talked to the mouse, and yes, he stood there and watched me!)  When I walked closer, he ran away.  I put logs in the woodstove and then went to look at the trap.  The trap was upside down and there was a very dead mouse in it.  So that confirms that we have a situation, apparently.  As cute as they are, I really can't be sharing my food with them, nor do I want them nesting in my belongings.  So the stats right now are us 1, them 0.  I guess the battle is on!

That's my mouse story for today.  Hope y'all have a happy (mouse-free) Saturday!