Clappy the mighty mouse hunter:
I've got a minor dilemma on my hands.
Recently I've noticed signs of mice in my house.
(For instance, I found a small little arched doorway along the baseboard molding in one of my rooms. It had a tiny little mailbox outside of it with the name Benny D. Mouse written on it.)
Anyhow, I've been tracking this rascle for some time now.
I went out an bought a bunch of mouse traps and set them using peanut butter as the bait. I put them in various places in the garage and kitchen closet, etc.
I've been checking the traps every day. I've noticed some of them have had all the peanut butter licked off the latch that springs the trap.
So then, I put peanut butter to use as the glue to hold on a tiny piece of cheese.
Same thing. Cheese and peanut butter gone and trap still set.
Sometimes I can hear the faint sound of tiny mouse laughter late at night...
So guess what happened to me tonight as I was typing the last post...
As I'm sitting at my desk, I see something move.
I say to mice elf, what was that?!
I didn't see anything move for the next minute, so I figured it was my imagination...
All of a sudden, from under the couch, I see a tiny object headed my way.
The mighty, macho, brave, hunter of rodents is caught off guard without any weaponry to defend himself...
What do I do? Do I grab a mouse trap and try to chase the little rascle with it? Do I waste a perfectly good dictionary and hit him with it?
No. I freeze.
The mouse freezes too.
We stare each other down like John Wayne and some bad guy in one of those westerns he was in.
I'm armed with my six shooter television remote control.
(I don't know why I grabbed that, out of all the objects sitting on my desk...What was I thinkin'?)
That's it! I'll keep changing the channels and drive the little critter crazy, like it does to my wife...
Anyhow, as we continue to stare at each other, I notice that he's sort of a cute little bugger. He's not like the skinny little lab mice you see. He was grey, sorta chubby and had a nice smile. (almost like Polvie, but real tiny...)
:^)
The showdown continues.
As he approaches me, my feet climb a little higher onto the swivel chair as I think this one out.
I guess the little guy sees that he can easily out power me, let alone, out think me...
He continues doing what ever mouse investigating he was doing as if I wasn't even there.
I stood up and slowly walked backwards out of the family room where my PC is located.
He begins to follow me. (better term than "chase me".)
I try to lead him into the garage, but he wouldn't follow me that far. He continued to play in the middle of my carpet.
I never saw anything like it. He had almost no mouse instincts. Normally they scurry into a tight spot, under furniture, or something. Not this little guy...
I look through the garage for something.
I realize that the tiny creature is too cute to smash or hurt. I found a cardboard box and a shovel I use to clean the woodstove fireplace.
When I returned to the room, he wasn't there.
I went back to typing and submitted my previous post, when all of a sudden he pops out from under my desk.
His little eyes stare at me as he slowly wonders around the carpet again.
I laid the box on it's side near the mouse. I then coaxed him in with the shovel.
I lifted the box up and covered it.
Then the mighty hunter begins to realize...
Now What?!
What should I do with him?
As I thought it out for a while, I decided to put a clean old tee shirt into the box, with a couple of sunflower seeds from the bird feeders and put him and the box outside.
(I'm glad my neighbors didn't see me...Vision clappy in his slippers walking around with a box with a mouse in it, at 2:30 in the morning, looking for a place to put the box that is far enough away from the house, yet not so far to draw attention to himself...)
Anyway, It's going to suck when that little guy finds his way back in to my house and finally trips one of those mouse traps... or runs into my 14 year old deaf, nearly blind, lovable dog...
I'm hoping he stays outside, yet I know he doesn't stand a chance...
If I can catch him, anything can...
He sure was a cute little bugger.
-TomAndJerry
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