Today's entry is about mice. The mice in our house.
Earlier this year I found a sad, strange, tiny little mouse walking around in my kitchen. After I'd housed it, gave it food (which it ate) and water (which it spilled) it died. The same day.
Well, not for nothing, I knew that wasn't a lone, stray, wee one in my house. I figured there were more. And when the nights were getting colder we'd see them.
I was in bed reading on Monday Night. Doug had fallen asleep on the couch watching the Patriots Game. I opted to listen to it on the radio because his couch-hogging and snoring were making my football viewing no fun.
So there I am, reading Order of the Phoenix (for the eighth time I think) and I could hear munching. Loud, vigorous, determined munching. It was coming from the wall between my bedroom and the front stair hallway. I got on my hands and knees and pressed ear against the drywall. The chewing was quick and frantic. I realized it was above me... up closer to the attic. I smacked the wall and it stopped... for a minute.
Damn. We have mice, and they're eating my damn house.
I went up into the attic but could see no sign of a mouse IN the attic... There was a huge crack in the floorboard right above where my bedroom door meets the front stair hall. I placed a large box on top of the opening and shook my fist at it. Take THAT you meeses.
I went back down to my bedroom, and the mice or mouse or meeses were just furiously gnawing to their itty bitty heart's content (or hearts', if there was more than one there). Knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep for the chomping, I turned up the radio and cranked on the fan to drown out the sound. Even with the white noise and the play-by-play covering up the sound, the knowledge that there were vermin chewing on my house prevented me from falling asleep.
Reluctantly, I got out of bed. I went on facebook and stalked some friends, and played TV Trivia, and Scrabulous, and surfed the web for a bit... and at about 2am went back to try and sleep.
The chewing had stopped, and I wondered where the little dickens had gotten himself off to... but I was able to fall asleep rather quickly, and happily. Thank God. Calling in sick the following day because I spent a restless night worrying about vermin would not be something I'd want to do.
First thing in the morning I confronted Doug, who had the day off to take Geoff to a doctor's appointment and attend an IEP meeting in the afternoon. "You need to buy those mousetraps we talked about a few months ago."
"uh. Okay."
And while Amy says she'll send Rocco The Cat From Marblehead (sing it!) over to clean up the mouse problem, I doubt the dogs would welcome him onto Team Way Out Inn and let him do his thing. So the traps will have to do.
Doug put traps all over the house in places that dog noses couldn't reach. Thursday morning, he checked them. One trap was licked clean of its peanut butter. Another was sprung, and flipped over and THEN licked clean of its peanut butter. And another had a dead mouse in it.
One down, however many millions more to go. Gah.
The last time we had mice was when we lived in Marblehead. We had a cat, and then got rid of the cat in exchange for a dog. God love ya, Linus... wherever you are (16 years? most likely dead by now...). We knew that Linus caught and killed mice. Our landlord loved it. He'd leave the basement door open a crack and Linus would do his thing. After Linus' departure, well... no more mousing. We packed up to move in April of 1995 and I flipped the loveseat over and saw that it had absolutely NO stuffing in the bottom... which explained why sitting in it was akin to sitting on the floor. There was mouse poop everywhere under it. Ewww. Not cool.
Next, in Lynn we had some mice. Our dog (the one we traded the cat for) was hiding under the dining table cowering. She had killed a rather large mouse in the middle of the kitchen, and I think she thought we were going to kill her. We didn't... we congratulated her and praised her. I'd never known a dog who could mouse before.
Anyway. One mouse this morning, in the same spot... same size... big. The traps are set and around and waiting. I have a feeling it will be a long autumn filled with nightly dead mice awaiting us in the morning.
My kids have off of school today and Monday. I don't have off from work. I'm jealous. Geoff is going to the Topsfield Fair, I think. Not 100% sure. Gotta get a breakfast into him and get myself to work.
As for yesterday's delurk event... out of 87 hits, I got 18 comments and about 4 were my own. So much for asking you to delurk... Everyone who commented was someone I was already familiar with.
Thank you to those who commented. Bree, stop slobbering on the top of my head. Terroni -- swimming team is also a good way to burn off some of that energy for a kid, get a lot of exercise, and learn a good competitive team sport, if that is available neare you. Mr. N, I can't believe you're having a baby. Hello Sean, waving masculinely. You are truly a manly man, Sir Sean a lot. Shelley, I miss you.
Elizabeth, I won't be at homecoming this year. Rebecca will probably be at homecoming this year, if she doesn't have elevendy weddings to attend this weekend. Heh. My guster girls Sarah and Crystal delurked and said hey - Speaking of babies, Sarah's planning a fun gift for someone having one in January and speaking of weddings, Crystal's planning one herself! Yo! Hey ladies.
I think I know which Dave (I know 3) left the comment and am glad to be a source of (a)musement for his life. Annie comments when she can, and I do so in return... hello Annie. I hope you are having a great day. Abbey needs to blog more, like Shelley does too. I miss you. When's the next BNL concert Ab! Or Guster! It was nice to hear from Amy of the Bad Grooveness. And recently I'd reconnected with KG from college, so thanks for commenting here K. Loving your blog and your photos and I too will not talk about the Red Sox until it is all said and done. Lest I jinx.
Jo, always nice to hear from you. Will you be at the fair? And last but not least Jonathan. Your son's tae kwon do'h teacher is spot on. No "I can't" but "I'll try." And perhaps he'll suck a little less as he goes along and get really good. That's all I can hope.
Did I miss anyone? I hope not.
I commented all over teh intarwebs yesterday. I expected a little more commenting action, but ... you still have time. Comment on yesterday's entry or today's and just let me know who you are!
More later from mouse death central! I gotta get to work!
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