EEK - there's a mouse in the house!!!

i was sitting in a recliner in my front room a couple of nights ago. you can see into my kitchen from where i was sitting. out of the corner of my eye, i see movement. i turn, but there's nothing there. no big deal. about 30 minutes later, the same thing. movement - nothing there. i think it could be a spider. we get those. so i go into the kitchen to look, but i don't see anything. again, about 30 minutes later, i actually see a little brown/grey mouse run across my floor!!!

"OFFICER - THERE'S A MOUSE IN OUR KITCHEN!!! it ran under the stove!!!!!!!!!"

the officer comes into the kitchen and checks under the stove and refrigerator, but sees nothing. oh and now that he's pulled the refrigerator and stove out we have to clean both appliances and under them. not how i was planning on spending my evening.

when i was in college and lived in a much older house, i had mice. my roommate, j, took care of them for me as i was sitting on the arm of the couch screaming. yes - i'm not typically very girly, but i will scream high and shrill when i see a mouse. j didn't particularly like taking care of the mice, but she would do it. i wasn't above letting her.

anyhow, when we had mice back then, we would see mouse droppings on the floor and chewed up corners of boxes. i had seen none of this, so i had no evidence that we had a mouse or that it had been in the house for long. although with a 6 and 4 year old, it's not unusual for food to be on the floor. i didn't think the mouse had been in the house for more than a day. i have been up late maybe 3 of the last 5 nights and had seen nothing. then in one night i see the mouse scurrying across my floor 3 times.

well neither the officer, nor i, wanted to head to wal-mart at 10:30 p.m., so we decided to wait until tomorrow to set traps. i'm sure the nice, sweet, non-rabid mouse went into it's little mouse house until 5 a.m. when our house started stirring. it probably didn't eat the crushed up goldfish crackers on the carpet.

the officer got up, got ready, and left for work. the kids wake up at 6:30 a.m. i wake up at 6:30 a.m. i go into my bathroom and the mouse runs from behind my toilet and dashes across the floor. the mouse is slipping as it is trying to get away from the big asian giant screaming like a girl. he is trying to get away from me but his little feet can't move fast enough. since i am frozen, screaming, he has time to get into the linen closet. i am not sure who was more scared: the woman who found a mouse in her bathroom or the mouse listening to the big asian woman screaming! yes - i screamed like a girl, but i was not distracted. i moved like lightening to grab a towel and stuffed it under the opening of the closet door. the mouse is trapped until the officer gets home to catch it.

when the officer comes home, he prepares to catch the mouse. he gets his big blue trash can, some pieces of sheet rock, and a broom. i ask him if we can all watch him catch the mouse. he said he doesn't care. my son gets his plastic shotgun so he can shoot it if it gets away. i stuff towels under the bathroom and the officer's closet door so the mouse can't escape into the rest of the house or the maze that is my husband's closet. me and my two kids are perched up on the bathroom cabinets watching the officer set his trap.


the officer puts the trash can at the opening of the linen closet door with the pieces of sheetrock on the sides. he's hoping the mouse will just run right into the blue trashcan. the officer pulls open the door and nothing happens. i do see tufts of green on the floor. tufts of green where the mouse has spent it's day trying to chew through the green towel i had put under the door opening! if i had know the mouse could have chewed through the towel i would have much more freaked out waiting for the officer to get home!

we have air mattresses, sleeping bags, blankets, sheets, and LINEN things in our linen closet. the officer sees some mouse droppings on top a pile of blankets. he realizes we are going to have to go through all the blankets. he take out each sleeping bag (2), each air mattress (4), each comforter (1), each blanket (2), and starts on the sets of sheets.

the first set of sheets that he shakes out, the mouse falls out. we all scream (which is echoing very loudly with all the doors shut), the officer drops the sheet, and the mouse is running around like crazy in the linen closet. the officer takes his broom and guides him into the blue trashcan. he lifts the trashcan up and we all take a look. the mouse is actually kind of cute. however, the mouse is jumping up the side of the trashcan about 18 inches. i didn't know they could jump that high. my son runs out to the shed the to get the lid for the trashcan.

the officer and my kids take the mouse to the field by our house (the same field where we released our turtle), and released the mouse. now i am washing all the blankets and the sheets the mouse could have been on.

oh the fun we have on our little island!