There's A Mouse In My Toolbox [Kitchen]

A few short weeks after we moved into this house we celebrated our first Christmas here. It was a sparse Christmas with a lamp for a tree, but we were together, in our first house. That year Genny got her first Laurie Berkner CD, Rocket Ship Run. My favorite song on the CD is Mouse in My Toolbox. The CD also has several songs about 'going on a hunt'. Both of these songs have been in my head since first spotting the mouse on my stove before in ran and dove behind the stove.

Yes, we have a mouse. Scratch that, we have (at least) two mice. So I set a trap. It was a good idea, I put the mouse trap inside a paper bag (with something to prop it open). I wanted the clean up to be easy and quick. But he/they didn't take the bait. So I took my mom's advice and put some peanut butter on the trap, and set it out on the paper bag, this time on the floor next to the wall. It worked! I heard the SNAP last night at about 10:15pm. Then the fear of how I was going to get rid of the body without looking at it or touching it -or pretty much having anything to do with it- set in. So I texted my neighbor, Jake. I asked him to come over before he left for work to dispose of the body. I didn't think about the fact that I'm transitioning my family to Michigan time, so we're getting up pretty early. Had it not been for the carnage in the kitchen, I would have gotten Genny up at 5am. It took me a half hour to muster up the strength to cross the line into the battle field. I incurred a head ache from making interesting noises related to holding my breath and trying to psych myself up to the job of getting rid of the body. In the end, I did it.

Now I have to do it again.

Thank goodness for neighbors; another neighbor, Jim, just retired so is at home most of the day. I saw him at 'lunch' (lunch for us Alfords, 10am for everyone else) and asked if he would help me out when the battle of Who's House This Is takes another life. He seemed more than obliged. I am currently back in my bedroom, Genny is napping, and I'm hoping that the front lines will no longer be empty. This war will claim lives, and they won't be of me or my family!

The trap on the left is the one in use as of this post. The one on the right was down when we went to the park this morning but that stinkin mouse licked the peanut butter off it.

This is where they live[d].

The innocent children of the war



Update
An hour after posting this I went into the kitchen to find that the mouse had somehow eaten the star and not set off the trap. So I set the trap with superglue under a cheerio, with peanut butter on top. The evasion techniques of this mouse are causing me to feel less guilt and more vengeful with each failed attempt at killing it.