As we suspected, the mice have not yet gone away, and after catching 3 of them we finally set some glue traps.
Poor me...it was a rough afternoon.
I nearly stepped on one mouse that had gotten his back feet stuck in the glue trap. He had dragged himself out from under the bookshelf taking the glue trap with him and ended up in the middle of the dining room floor. When I went through the dining room to let the dogs out I nearly had a heart attack as I narrowly missed stepping on him and then had to decide what to do with him while keeping four kids occupied in the after-school chaos.
I voted on removing him before the kids saw him and were either traumatized or wanted to keep him.
I grabbed a paper towel and very carefully (I didn't want to get bitten) picked up the glue trap and took the mouse outside and set him on the deck railing. I needed him up high enough that the dogs couldn't get to him. And I wanted him somewhere where I could keep an eye on him.
I kept checking on him periodically and felt so bad because he was trying so hard to crawl somewhere...anywhere...but he had that glue trap stuck to his back legs. So I finally decided I would douse him in some vegetable oil and peel him off the trap into a box (all this while helping with homework and getting dinner ready--thankfully Danielle and Emily were occupied with cutting paper!).
Right as I had gotten the box and the oil ready, Mark called to say he was on his way home. He told me to put the mouse (and the glue tray) in the box and pour the oil over the part of him that was stuck and then leave it there for him to deal with when he got home.
Okay. So I pour vegetable oil all around the poor little mousie's legs and tail after setting the glue trap in the box. The box was sitting on the back porch and I put a board on top of it so the dogs wouldn't knock the lid off.
I looked outside a few minutes later to see the lid off of the box. I stepped out onto the porch to see our dog lying in the yard, with the upside-down glue tray between her front paws, licking her lips.
I nearly passed out knowing that I had to go out and get that glue tray and not knowing what else I might find with the glue tray.
Hoping that I was wrong in my assumptions as to the fate of the mouse, I checked the box first. He was still there! He was huddled in the corner and I'm pretty sure he was muttering something about "big tongue" and "am I dead yet?" Apparently the dog didn't want the mouse--just the vegetable oil on the glue tray.
I put the lid and the wood back on, went and retrieved the glue tray, and went to finish dinner (I did a LOT of handwashing throughout this, by the way...just thought I should mention that). I left the mouse for Mark to deal with, which he did as soon as he got home.
The kids never knew a thing.
And while we still have three more glue traps out, I am so hoping that if more mice get caught that they at least have the decency to stay hidden where the traps are at least until Mark gets home.
Monday, September 28, 2009
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5 comments:
I promise, I'm not laughing. I HATE those glue traps. Seriously hate them. All the mice do is flip around the room, and eventually get the thing stuck to something else! My husband likes those snap traps. Not like the old fasioned wood ones with the metal bar, but the ones that, once they have a mouse in them, you can pinch it open with your fingers to release the (hopefully) dead mouse. Oh, but wait! Did I say "Hopefully dead"? Yeah, that might be because 90% of the time **I** am awoken at night to the sound of the trap snapping on a mouse AND THEN the mouse flipping all over teh kitchen trying to escape from it! (Notice Dean is not woken up, just me. Kind of like they don't hear a baby crying, they don't hear a mouse trap either.) Oh, and the best is when it is one little mousy toe stuck in the thing and you know as soon as you reach it he's going to escape and run right up your leg! I'm totally going to blog about mouse traps now.
Bless your heart!
I'm trying very hard not to laugh....
I thought it hilarious that the dog only wanted the vegetable oil. What's up with that?
We haven't had a mouse in our house here yet...but my two outside kitties love to bring their "treasures" and leave them on my door mat. ugh. Not fun to step on.
I am so thankful that we don't have mice. Although I hope that if we ever do, I'm as graceful as handling it as you are - I might jump up on a chair and scream.
Would you (or Mark) mind if I gave your web address to a co-worker of mine? He and his wife have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get pregnant, and they are now considering adoption. They're thinking Columbia (that's where my co-worker is from), but I think it might be helpful to get some of the "been there, done that" perspective.
Erin, you are welcome to share our blog address with anyone who is interested. :)
So friends... I'm a bit behind on my Olmsted blog-reading...
OH MY GOSH!!! This story was so crazy! I read it out loud to Ryan and we're both amazed by this story. It's one of those where you're actually not sure whether to laugh or cry because of how frazzled your mind must have been!
I'm so glad that the dog was licking his paws because of the veggie oil instead of a huge bite from a mouse...or from killing a mouse by eating it! I would have freaked at the mere sight of the mouse (I HATE them with a passion...not a person who thinks they're cute...), so I deeply admire you for everything you did to try to save the mousie, all the while, keeping this nutty story from the kids' knowledge. Courtney, you deserve a mom award, for sure!! (Ok, Mark can get an award for doing the clean-up, but you had a more chaotic deal, for sure!)
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