How To Catch a Mouse

Last week I woke up to Matt whisper/shouting my name, telling me he needed help. I assumed it was W waking up with another bout of stomach flu, but instead Howie had cornered a mouse behind the couch. That's right: Mouse in the house.

I *might* have raised my voice and scared Howie off to the bedroom (not good, considering he was our best chance of actually catching it). This only resulted in our scampering around, coming up with a plan, shrieking (me, not Matt), and then focusing on the plan: Matt would use a broom to usher mouse into the empty shoe box I was holding, then release outside. It was an intense couple of minutes.

But, then we got him, and as Matt steadily came down with the broom, the mouse stopped moving and there may have been some blood. And our little mouse friend was done for. The shoe box would be his final resting place.

I came up with some very logical reasons for how the mouse got in: An open door, the drier vent hose-thingy broke that was broken earlier that week, maybe he crawled down the chimney. All seemed like logical answers for the fact that there was only one mouse seeking warmth and we took care of him. I went to bed feeling good that night, confident it was a done deal.

And then Matt decided to investigate further and found traces of a mouse in the uninsulated area way under the kitchen sink, a corner of the house you can barely reach. We set a trap with a little cheese to see if our deceased mouse had left behind a friend. Nothing. Trap went unsprung for days. Then one morning the cheese had been snatched, but no mouse was left behind. Apparently our mouse had an accomplice.

Matt took to the web and -- after some insightful research -- learned that the best thing to put on a mouse trap is peanut butter. So, he put peanut butter on two traps, positioned them in the scary area, and wouldn't you know... I woke up this morning and was informed that we had caught not one, but two mice. Now our mouse issue is a mice issue. (I know, insane, right?)

I worked from home today and BRAVELY encouraged Matt to reset the traps. I listened carefully for any snap noise, kept checking them, totally freaking about what I might find... And nothing all day. It's like a horror movie.

A horror movie that gets worse... Because Matt is going skiing this weekend. What if a mouse gets loose? Seriously! What the heck would I do? I shudder to think of it. Ugh.

I know, I know... It's ridiculous for me to freak out. We have no signs of mouse activity outside of this one area, no chewed open bread bags or cereal boxes or those other gross signs. They're contained. And we have a 50+ year old house and it's been about 50 degrees below zero. Of course a mouse found a way in! What are the chances that we got the three free loaders or that taking a few down will lead any others to retreat and kindly exit stage left?

Let's hope we've won the war.

NOTE AFTER ORIGINAL POSTING: This morning the traps were mouse-free, but some of the peanut butter seemed to be missing. To play it safe, Matt tightened the spring. This could be a good sign.