We have a mouse.
And despite my childhood love for and mild obsession with Fievel Mouskewiz of "An American Tail" fame, I want this mouse to die...much like the other unsuspecting spiders, bees, box elder bugs, etc. upon whom I used to shower my pity by letting outside. But ever since I had this baby, I'd just as soon obliterate the pests as look at them.
What bothers me most is the way this mouse scurries out in the middle of the floor right in broad daylight - while I am glued to my chair nursing a baby, of course. It's taunting me. It even tried to BITE me. (I was dozing, sitting up, on the couch, and it tried to take a taste of my little toe. It didn't break the skin.) At 2:30 this morning, I watched helplessly (nursing again) through squinting eyes (I didn't have my glasses on) as a gray blur traced a path around and around my kitchen. I can only hope he isn't finding much to eat in there, but given the current state of my kitchen floor, he's probably become the caterer for a whole little mouse village.
I admit that memories of "The Rescuers" (they were mice, right?), Cinderella's Gus-Gus, and the aforementioned Mouskewiz family almost make me want to live-and-let-live -- but unless I decide to make him a pet (sorry, Kirst), I'm afraid it's time to buy some traps and send this Mickey Mouse to the big Disneyland in the sky.
22 comments:
If I remember correctly, Matt owns an almost brand-new pellet gun located in a certain 150 pound (moon gravity weight) gun safe in Sandy. You could either move the whole safe down to your house to have the pellet gun handy or maybe just get the gun. Just a thought.
There are other humane(or inhumane) ways to kill your friend mickey. Just don't get carried away Brittany. Learn from Lars and Ernie Smuntz from Mousehunt. Even though in the end things worked out with the invention of string cheese, I am sad to say your story wouldn't end so happily. String cheese is already on the market. By the way, that gun should be mine. How did Matt end up with it again?
Brittany, please listen to me! Please control your passion and get a trap... a harmless one. Just a little cage that'll catch this little Mickey and then take him far, far away. (preferably NOT to the mousey heaven). I know that I take my sensitivity too far: begging for a mouse's life, but honestly, it just kills me (and the mouse) to think of the death trap awaiting him. PLEASE DON'T KILL HIM!!!
P.S. If you have a heart of lead and don't listen to my pleas, at least don't inform anyone about it, so that I won't eventually be the one informed about it.
(His death that is. I bet that I'll find it from a sibling if I don't find it in the obituaries.)
Brittany,
Have you seen Ratatouille yet? Maybe this young mouse has the same professional cooking skills as Remy...
I didn't realize I was going to create such a stir with this post! Kirst, I will do my best - I too feel like 'offing' the little creature is different from just squashing the errant box elder bug. I'll keep you posted. Or not, depending...
Go ahead with the box elder bugs, but PLEASE (I'm sorry that I keep begging... maybe I'm not, actually) don't kill the little mouse. He was probably kissing your foot... not biting. And whatever you do: do not watch Lady and the Tramp when deciding how to treat little Mickey.
Sorry Kirst, but I have to say that the best bet is to borrow Kitty for the night.
Winston charges by the hour.
Here's how you do it. . . you take an empty cereal box and put some peanut butter in the bottom of the bag. Tape a string to the top of the box and the other side to the top of your counter. You put the box on the counter with the bottom half hanging over. When the mouse goes to get the peanut butter, he tips the box off the counter and it hangs there until you find him in the morning. (the downside is that you find out he's actually been on your counter)
What? My secret stash of "fennel seeds" behind the spice rack were what ruined the last two batches of stuffing?
Also Mark, you remind me of all kinds of schemes that I failed at - like getting guns. I don't know whose that pellet gun is and even if it were mine I'm sure you'd end up with it somehow.
I think Kirsten is right 0 rodents don't really have lips. If they want to kiss they say it with a bite. Kind of like how bears say it with a slap, right?
I think Winston might be your best bet. I least he is not killing just for fun, he eats what he kills.
My vote is for Kitty. She's cheap, and at this point I don't think it matters that she'd just do it for sport. Go get 'em, tiger.
Please, guys! I like Mike's idea a whole lot! (if it works). I was just thinking about that movie a couple of days ago... the one with Bongo. John: that is MY cat. I payed the ten dollars for her, fed her and cleaned her litter box. I helped her with two of her three births (the other one I arrived late) and raised her kittens and found them good homes. You are NOT going to send her to Matt and Brittany's to kill the mouse. She is not an assassin!
This blog/comments kill me. I just have to say that Mike has dealt much with rodents in his Carribean days... It might be worth a try.
Kirsten, as far as Kitty not being an assassin, her track record in Sandy is pretty strong evidence. The only question is whether she prefers hunting mice or birds!
Whew! Well, if I didn't think it would be more of a nightmare trying to get Winston or Kitty down here (cats are notoriously poor travelers) than it would be finding a dead mouse in a trap (or a live one in a box...or dead, depending, I guess, on the fall. Or the reaction to peanut butter), I might just enlist their services. As it is, what would I do with the mouse when I caught him? Let him outside? That's not going to work! And incidentally, today I found droppings in four of my kitchen drawers. That's NOT going to work either. I'm afraid I'm getting desperate...
Brittany. Not JUST outside. Outside far away. Please Brittany, it's just cruel to kill a mouse for eating... it might be different if a BEAR was bothering you with his diet, but just because you've found poop in your drawer doesn't mean you should kill the mouse. After all, you find your baby's poop in a bag and (occasionally) leaking onto your lap, but you don't punish HIM. (I guess that a mouse and baby are different, but the point is that the mouse hasn't done anything WRONG, necessarily. Please don't kill him.)
go with mikes idea with a twist. Have the string connected to a stopper that would be pulled out when the bag dropped. Have the ball role down a slope until it hits an self-inflatable device. This ball will hit the balloon thing and it will inflate until it squeezes the trigger. That's right. set up the pellet gun to aim right at the spot where the mouse will be as it hangs there. put a hole in him and the whole thing is over. If that explanation is a little too vague I am always just a phone call away.
That defeats the purpose if the harmless trap, Mark. And don't give them ideas.
We just heard the mouse singing in the kitchen. Not a terribly tuneful rodent, but certainly one with bravado. I tried to track him down to "pet" him (Kirsten I'm looking in your direction), but he scampered away. I'm definitely thinking about renting Winston... and I'm not talking about deceased British Prime ministers.
Please don't kill him, guys. Please.
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