It all began this spring. I was cleaning out our pantry, organizing some of the dry foods, when I noticed mouse droppings. I tried to ignore them. We'd occasionally gotten a mouse in our house over the years that either went away (at least that's what our cats told us) or we caught and released.Then I saw the bags of rice. Gone. We're not just talking nibbles here. There were entire bags of rice completely empty except for mouse droppings in the bag! I picture that little bugger chowing down for days living high on the hog.
So I threw the eaten and half eaten bags out, put the remainder in a box together, set them on the shelf again, and hoped the mice had moved on to other houses.
I was mistaken.
Several months later I notice an empty bag of rice on the floor under the pantry shelves. I really, really, wanted to believe this was an errant bag I forgot to throw out. So what if there were fresh mouse droppings beside the box of rice? I like living in a bubble without mice.
Mistaken again.
Finally I pulled the box of rice down to have a look. And discovered more empty bags, and more mouse droppings. Plus we found rice on the washing machine, of all places. Not good. We had a hungry mouse. (Yeah, I hear you experienced mouse catchers snickering.)
I got out the 'ol HaveAHart trap and got ready to set it, but it was broken so we had to make a hardware store run. My dad was enlisted for this. Well, he came home with a
HaveAHart trap alright . . . the size of our cat! I pointed at the box where it said perfect for catching rats and small mammals.Another hardware run later and we had a mouse sized trap. Which I set. With peanut butter.
The next morning I check the trap, and lo and behold, we have a mouse! Success! We'd caught our mouse. I let it go in the field near our house (it almost scampered up my arm when I opened the trap!). But just to be sure, I re-set the trap for that night's mouse parties.
Day 2 we caught a second mouse. Okay . . . trap re-set.
Day 3 we caught Mouse #3. Not so funny anymore.
Day 4 . . . Mouse #4.
Day 5 . . . Mouse #5.Day 6 . . . No mouse! Had we trapped them all?
Day 7, today . . . Mouse #6!!! I'm getting tired of counting and taking pictures, so this one will remain anonymous.
What does this have to do with books, writing or publishing? I have no idea. But I knew the Mouse Saga deserved to be told. And it's not over . . .
P.S. All these photos are of different mice!
