Saturday, August 23, 2008

Dumb Mouse

So, as was inevitable in a house built on a concrete slab with no basement, I ended up with a mouse in the townhouse. I saw him last night, running from behind one of the desk units to behind the media storage unit. Fine, I thought, I can deal with this rodent. Stopped at Safeway after my shift today and picked up 6 spring-loaded traps, baited and set 4 of them and placed them in likely spots where said rodent would be running. Mr. Mus musculus would NOT get the better of me.

The mouseman showed up, twitched his nose & whiskers, and cursorily inspected the 2 baited traps it encountered - without tripping either. Just to hedge my bets, I also placed an empty jar against the crack where entertainment unit met the wall, lid nearby. I don't necessarily want to kill, a humane catch-and-release would work for me too. Although I kept a close eye on the usual place of appearance for the next hour, no sign of the fuzzy intruder.

I started to hear a curious thumping noise from the direction of the downstairs bathroom. Muting the TV, I went to investigate. What did I find but the mouse, trapped in a plastic wastebasket just a little too high for him to jump out of, even though he tried heroically. First I opened the inside door and unlocked the screen door. Then, I picked up the wastebasket, creating a frenzied increase in the escape effort jumping. I opened the screen and tossed the rodent free, into the grass and the night. Go, run, escape, and enter my domicile no more, fuck off and get lost! I told the vermin-infested critter as I closed and locked the doors.

Just in case the little bastard had friends, I'm leaving the traps out. Killing's okay with me, too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully, the mouse will tell all his buddies not to try invading your domicile, as she has far too many traps, and smarts, than they do!

TB said...

You need a garter snake. :)

Then there would be no need to worry about - or even think about - Mus musculi.