The mouse is still stirring

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! The mouse I caught was definitely not acting alone. I've seen subsequent evidence that one of it's family members is still infiltrating my kitchen.

So I bought live traps. You know...the kind that once they go in they can't get out? I carefully baited them with peanut butter AND a piece of dog biscuit (since they seem to have a fondness for dog biscuits). I really don't want to kill them.

It's not working. I apparently have a clever mouse. Unlike its sibling that I trapped in the box of dog biscuits and exiled to the dumpster using a plastic bag, I can't seem to catch and evict this one. [FYI, to assuage concerns that the mouse in the plastic bag suffocated, it was one of those grocery bags. The ones that always have those little holes in the bottom. So I'm assuming it escaped into the land of plenty of the dumpster.]

The mouse has explored the traps. Thoroughly. I've seen evidence that it has crawled over, around, and through the little tunnel that the opening is in since I put them out (a little over a week ago now). But it has not gone in the trap. The bait is still intact a week later (might need to freshen it come to think of it - or do mice like rancid peanut butter?).

Since I have a clever mouse that has thus far evaded capture in the live trap, I'm going to try another method: repel it. There's these sonic repellent devices that emit a high frequency noise that's not supposed to bother humans, canines, or felines, but rodents hate it. I've heard conflicting reports and read conflicting reviews that they've worked and that they're worthless. I'm going to find this out for myself in the next week. Good think I don't have pet gerbils anymore.

To Aussie's credit, she's actually shown some interest as of late. She's not watching for them, but if she sees movement she'll go after it. She cornered one the other day. Had it trapped behind the trash can in the kitchen. Unfortunately, when I walked into the kitchen to figure out what she was up to nosing around the trash can like that, she took her eye off of the mouse to look at me questioningly ("why are you yelling at me?"). The mouse took advantage of the lapse in observation and made a dash for freedom and I saw it run under the radiator in the kitchen and disappear. The accusatory look I got from my dog was priceless: "MOM, look what you did! Now I've LOST it!!" Aussie then spent the next 30 minutes lying on the kitchen floor peering under that radiator. A knock at the door pulled her away, otherwise I think she would have continued to lie there waiting for it to reappear.

The downside: it escaped. The upside: I might know where it's getting in. There's a crack right along the baseboard behind the radiator that I didn't see before. But I see it now. Soon I will make that crack disappear. I live in an old home. There are lots of cracks and gaps due to settling and previous tenants. I spent a good hour the other day crawling along my baseboards with a flashlight looking for holes to plug (with steel wool...they hate it and can't chew through it) and obviously I didn't find them all. Unfortunately, steel wool isn't going to work with the crack, it's too long and oddly shaped.

So my plan is to journey once again to the hardware store and this time make two purchases: expanding insulating foam to try and plug the crack, and, one of those sonic repellent devices in case there are more holes/cracks that I missed.

Like I said, I don't want to kill it. I just don't want a mouse stirring in my house!

Triumph! (maybe)

So last night I'm doing a load of laundry. I walk into the laundry room and what do I see but a little mouse tail sticking out of the hole in the box of dog treats.

You've got to be f*cking kidding me.

I "booby trapped" the area around the treats, hoping to catch the little sucker. Yes, the same box I discovered it had gotten into while I was away. I figured I'd use it as bait to catch the mouse knowing it would be back (I'm not dumb) before I threw it away. So I booby trapped it. Seriously. I set traps. I hated doing it, but I didn't see an alternative since the dog is so not interested in helping me out and running the mouse out of the house. I set it up so the mouse had to go across the traps to get to the dog treats. Somehow, the little sucker got through the traps and into the box of treats. OK then, mouse. GAME ON.

It hadn't moved when I walked in the room. The tail is still sticking out of the box. I don't think it heard me over the dryer running or for all I know it gorged itself into a dog-biscuit induced coma. So I quietly back out of the room and grab a plastic grocery bag. Quickly, I tip the box of dog treats and cover the hole with the bag. YES! The mouse is now trapped in the box of treats. Next step. Remove the treats and the mouse from my house.

While walking through the house with the box of dog treats in one hand and the holding the plastic bag around the hole with the other, I feel the plastic bag suddenly get a bit heavy. Then I feel the bag move. The mouse had crawled out of the box of treats into the bag. Sh*t. Must. Get. Outside. NOW. I get out the door, drop the box of treats and quickly knot the plastic bag shut, effectively trapping the mouse in the bag. W00T! Go me! The mouse is now out of my house.

I then dump the treats into another bag and fold up the cardboard box for recycling. On Aussie's and my evening walk, I deposit both the bag of treats and the mouse (still trapped in the plastic bag) in the big dumpster at the end of the block, far far away from my house. I figure even if it escapes (which it might), it hopefully won't find it's way back to and into my house again. Besides, with the bounty available in a dumpster, why would it want to?

So the score so far:
Shana: 1 Mouse: 0

Once we got home, I crawled all along my baseboards with a flashlight looking for holes. I only found one behind a radiator that I hadn't plugged up before. Please say a prayer that I've now found and plugged them all so I don't have to deal with this again. And say another prayer that it was the only mouse and not just one member of a family of mice.

Frankly I am much relieved I managed to trap it and remove it alive. I didn't want to kill it. I just didn't want to share my house with a mouse.

Mouse in my house!

So, I return from my lovely weekend trip to NYC (posts about the weekend coming soon) and find out that a mouse has taken up residence. I learned this by discovering it found it's way into the *unopened* box of dog biscuits and had a little snack. Short of the dog treats, there's nothing else in my house it could get to for a snack (I keep my kitchen clean), which is why I've never had a mouse before.

Dammit.

And now I have to figure out where it got in and how to drive the little sucker out again. If I throw out the box of dog treats, then there's nothing left for it to eat, so maybe it won't come back. Nice theory, right? Think it will work?

Anyone know someplace I can rent a cat for a week or so?? I can see the ad now: WANTED: good mouser for short term employment.

[Image courtesy of i can has cheezburger?]