A New Mousetrap

I'm back!

The headache is gone... I appreciate your sympathetic responses to last night's entry. From Thursday afternoon until this morning it lasted... all through the night I'd wake up and there it was, a deep dull ache.

Maybe it was the TylenolPM I took before I went to bed that helped... I took it before I wrote the entry last night, but even as I entered it, my eyes were aching from the light coming off the monitor.

Maybe it was knowing that today was Saturday!! Yeay!

I thought about going in to school to play catch up, and even put my school key in the car, hung it from the rear view mirror so I wouldn't forget it. I never made it to school.

Before I drove into town for a few groceries, I stopped at my girlfriend's house. Her eleven year old daughter had called to tell me about her new kitten that her dad had found at work this week.

Knowing her dad, it was quite a surprise that he would do such a thing. Just goes to show us all that he has a very soft spot in his big guy heart.

He had found the tiny kitten outside his work place, laying on top of another kitten, which was dead. The mother cat was nowhere to be seen, and the kitten appeared to be malnourished. From what I understand, he took the kitten into his workplace, and of course, everyone thought it was cute and fussed over it, but nobody wanted to take it home and take care of it.

He called his wife (my girlfriend) and told her what he had, and told her the sad story, before asking her if he could bring it home... they already have a dog and two cats.... but she knew if she said yes, she'd be the one taking care of it after the first three days. So she said no.

She is not a heartless woman, no. She loves animals, but like me, she believes in taking only as many pets as one is prepared to be responsible for. And she did not want the responsibility to fall on her. Someone would have to take it to the vet, clean up after its accidents, feed it, etc, etc. You know what happens when you take in a new pet, especially one so young.

Well, to make a long story short, she told him he would have to be responsible for it, he would have to take it to the vet, and so on. He agreed, and brought it home. He took it to the vet, it's clean and free of critters, malnourished somewhat, but they are taking very good care of her.

                                      

Here is my friend's daughter with the kitten, named Smitty. There's a clever story to how the cat got its name, but I wanted to make a brief entry tonight. This is going to be another spoiled, but well loved kitty cat.

And now, for one more animal story. We've always had problems with mice getting into our home. I've tried various mousetraps.

The poison. Didn't like it. They die in the house, between the walls where you can't get to them. You have to wait for the stench to go away.

The spring trap. Didn't like that kind either. I have to see the poor dead body of a tiny mouse with its eyes bulging. Not pretty. And there's blood.

The spring trap with a clip so you don't have to touch the mouse. Press the clip and it releases the dead mouse. Supposedly. Didn't like them because they don't always kill the mouse right off. Sometimes the mouse struggles for a long time, strangling, and suffering. That makes me cry.

The sticky glue pad. That one is horrible! Have you ever watched a mouse caught on that one? Worst, have you ever tried to rescue the mouse from it after it has gotten stuck? Horrible, horrible, painful. They should do away with that one.

The mouse hotel. Now there is a friendly mouse trap. The mouse is tempted to walk into the little clear plastic box. The hinged door flips open easily and lets them in. A dab of peanut butter rubbed on the outside, and some further inside is the key. The mouse goes inside, licks up all the peanut butter, then turns around and ... the lid has closed. It only opens one way, coming in. The mouse can't get out.

Now if you are a vigilant box checker, you can carry the little box outside, and release the mouse about five miles from your home so it won't come back into your house. However, it will go into someone else's house.

Any closer to your house and the mouse comes back into your house. It's a fact. I did an experiment once, after we caught a grey mouse in the box, with blue food coloring. Painted the mouse all over with blue, then released it into the woods. Two days later there was a mouse caught in the box again. A regular colored grey mouse. Not a hint of blue on it. Surrounded by a day's worth of blue poop.

Okay, for the reason I brought this up. Tonight, my husband calls to me from the garage, "Do you want to see a mouse in a predicament?" 

I wondered as I grabbed my camera, "I don't recall setting up any mousetraps lately."

I walked slowly to where he stood next to a shelf in the garage. I turned on my camera to get ready for the shot. He indicated a paper cup sitting on the shelf.

I asked if it was dead. He chuckled, "No, take a look. I think I have an idea for a new kind of mousetrap."

I peered into the tall cup, about a fourth filled with a soft drink. Must have been left behind during the week. I set down cups all the time, so does he, when we are working in the garage.

Inside was the mouse. We wondered over how it came to get into the cup. It probably crawled up above the level of the cup, then fell or jumped in. Couldn't get back out.

After I took a quick picture of it (turned out to be fuzzy), he took it outside and poured out the drink, mouse and all. The mouse took off so fast we didn't see which way it went in the darkness.

                                   

Poor little mouse!!

I love animals, and don't like to see them suffer, even mice. They have fur, and they're tiny and cute. They are food for the owls and snakes in the world, but I don't like killing them.

I think Steve is onto something when he said that it gave him an idea for a better mousetrap. The worst that can happen is that the critter will have a sugar and caffeine overload. The secret is only put enough to get the mouse wet, not to drown it. Hmmmm....!

How do you respond to the mice that get into your home? Do you have a preferred method?