Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Mouse III: Like mouse II, but mousier

For those of you still interested in the ongoing saga of Mark vs The Mice, Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the infestation, there have been developments.

Having caught one last week, and my hand-made Skippy-baited humane trap having fooled no one, Amynah and I elected to block off the holes in our bedroom and kitchen with steel wool. We could still hear the little guy rooting about in the walls, but were able to sleep soundly, knowing that it could not escape. We heard nothing further from the kitchen.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I examined the pantry and discovered fresh droppings on the shelf where Amynah had formerly stored her chocolate. The only means of ingress was already blocked – where was it coming from?

Now concerned, I re-checked the trap and poison in the bathroom, where there is a whole too large to block. The trap there had been sprung, but caught nothing. The poison, however, was considerably diminished.

I went to sleep last night, listening once more to my rodent friend’s intra-mural activities. I was confident that given how much of the “cereal” it had ingested, it was not long for this world.

My sense of triumph was shattered (and my face very nearly dramatically altered) as I shaved this morning by the sound of Amynah’s shriek. We had caught another mouse, quite unexpectedly, in the “insurance trap” we’d set in the pantry.

This is particularly disturbing because it was caught on the top shelf of the pantry, where there is no longer any way for it to get in or out. Also, we had not heard any rodent activity outside of the bedroom wall since we caught the last one. This means we are apparently dealing with some new breed of flying stealth mice.

I am not confident.

PS – thanks to everyone for your mouse-control suggestions. I am now sleeping on a clove-stuffed mattress under dryer sheets, lulling myself to sleep by chanting the Lord’s Prayer backwards. I don’t think it’s had any effect on the mice, but Amynah’s taken to sleeping in the living room.

2 comments:

Victor Chisholm said...

"we are apparently dealing with some new breed of flying stealth mice" - no Mark, I think you are probably just dealing with an invasion of covert American spy bio-engineered knockout-mice. I mean, that summer Amynah spent in Washington... all the mouse/rat experiments in the lab... isn't it obvious?

strasmark said...

You know, given that they ignore our peanut butter traps in favour of chocolate, I suspect they may indeed be an Amynah creation.