A mouse in the house

I am freaking out.

I was peacefully reading blogs in the living room. I was feeling very productive, since I worked on my novel, read the chapters from the other girls in my writing group and wrote down comments, read part of a book, read everybody's blog, and ate lunch (all before D woke up. He's on a very odd schedule, 5:30 am to 12:45 pm, but we'll get to that later.)

D came out cheerfully to the living room and said, "We might have a mouse in the house."

"You're kidding me," I said. "A real, physical mouse?" (People say moronic things in times of stress.)

"Mm-hm," he said, still smiling placidly. "I was working out here last night and I saw a little mouse go vroom!"

I started to freak out. "D, we need to get that mouse out of here."

"Well, my sister had a mouse in her house, they came and killed it, and now she feels bad," he said.

"WE NEED TO GET IT GONE!" (Goodbye, grammar.)

"We'll get it gone. We'll go to the PETA site and find a humane way to do it."

Translation: it will never get done. I went to the site and found nothing. Granted, I didn't look very hard.

I know I am being a massive hypocrite. I'm a vegetarian yogini, yet I want this mouse gone. Now.

Before I moved in with and subsequently married D, I lived in a dump. Well, it was expensive Manhattan real estate, but a dump nonetheless. It was mouse central. One of my roommates, P, left out a trap with cheese on it. It remained untouched. He grew up in a farmhouse and said, "One day you will wake up with a mouse on your face, and you will scream." (He was given to campy drama.)

Finally we called the exterminators. It was a depressing sight, seeing the little mousie dead on the floor, like the victim of a gang hit. But I can't deal with little creatures scurrying around, shooting in and out of my field of vision, while I cook. I don't want them on my face.

I don't.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I hear ya, sister. You may recall my own dealings with "the mouse" in my house a couple months back. My cat finally killed it, but I would suggest calling the exterminator. You'll feel bad, but the humane stuff generally doesn't work.

However, I did buy this little device that plugs in and supposedly sends out a signal to mice that makes it so they can't eat, and they eventually have to leave so they can live. I picked it up at Walgreens. You might try something like that first.
jules said…
EEK! I'd lend you my cat, but all she'll do is puke and/or poop on your floors & couch. I don't think she'd have a clue what to do w/a mouse! Good luck & let us know what happens! It could be worse - it could be one of those bigger things we have here (god forbid!) Trust me, I don't want a mouse in my apt either!
Caro said…
Good luck with little mousy.
Frema said…
I wouldn't, either!
Anonymous said…
Totally understandable that you don't want mice in the house. I once spent the night in a place where you could hear the mice running in the walls.

I didn't sleep a wink.
Anonymous said…
Also, remember how a mouse once helped itself to Pa's hair? IMAGINE!

The mouse must be humanely removed from the premises!
Bearette said…
Hehe...trust you to find a Laura Ingalls link! ;)

I plugged in the electronic devices. The large one is quite noisy! Apparently some mice are hardy and it doesn't affect them. But for most, it messes up their nervous systems, and they run out of your apartment!
The place in Chico, CA where we live is right by a river. It flooded, and we got rats. I know rats are cute and all, but they carry disease (they carried the Bubonic Plague, remember?)

So we hired an exterminator and they put out traps. They found one dead rat in the air conditioner ducts. Hopefully the others went to someone else's house.
Bearette said…
D refuses to call the exterminator. He calls the mouse Rudolph, and seems to be becoming quite attached. But I don't think he saw the mouse last night after we put up the sonic devices.
Lish said…
I'd freak too, but I'm more concerned about spiders.

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