A few weeks back our babysitter mentioned she saw a mouse in the house by our shoes. She said she called the cat in, the cat went to that area and by the time I got home no one had seen the mouse again. I told Brad about it. He said "we live in the country and we will have mice this time of year." Ok fine, it is fall and it is cold, our house is warm and full of food. I get it! However, it does not mean I have to like it, or that I have to just let them live in our house and eat all our food.
A couple weeks ago I got back from grocery shopping (it falls on the very find line between dislike and hate.) and I carried all the kids and groceries in the house. I started putting all the groceries away. I went to the pantry to put things away and I heard a funny noise. I didn't think much of it because I had 3 kids talking in the kitchen. Then I heard the noise again, then a shadow of something moving, then a mouse jumped out at me. Ok, it was less of a jump and more of a scurry out the cabinet and onto the counter. The next few minutes were really crazy and went something like this: I screamed and screamed some more. Joel and Vince gave me funny looks. Joel went back to trying to get food out of the fridge. I ran to the door and yelled for the cat ("here kitty, kitty, kitty"). The only animal that came running was Maisy (our dog). When I returned to the pantry with Maisy, she has been known to get a mouse or two, Joel was standing in front of the fridge saying "here kitty, kitty." I kept telling Maisy to get the mouse. Then I hear Joel say "Mouse, Mickey Mouse?" I wish it were Mickey Mouse!
Vince found the whole thing very exciting and was ready to fight the mouse. His plan was that he would start it on fire and our cat, Juanita, would poke a hole in it. Then and I quote "we can eat him, because all animals have meat inside of them Mommy, even us!" I may have started going on a little rant about how mice are dirty and nasty and carry viruses. Vincent continued to talk about how we could eat the mouse. Two very different conversations and I don't think either one of us was really paying any attention to what the other was saying. Vincent then went on to say he was going to fight the mouse and kill him, and then the mouse would go to heaven. I said "Vincent there aren't mice in heaven." To which he replied "Mommy, all living things going to heaven when they die. God loves everyone." I told him "Ok, fine. But they won't be anywhere by me when I go to heaven." Leave it to Vince to point out I was setting a bad example.
I informed Brad that we were raging war on the mice in our house. He was nice enough to agree with me and set up every trap we own to catch the mice. There were 27 mouse traps. Brad washed them all before he set them. I thought it was hilarious and he didn't find the humor in it. Our kitchen looked like a war zone. There were mouse traps in the pantry (good luck getting food out humans or mice), on the floor, on the counters, and it was a little out of control. I had to keep the gates to the kitchen locked so the kids and dogs didn't get hurt. One day I let my guard down and I looked and Joel was laying on the floor reading a book within 6 inches from two different mouse traps. He seemed blissfully unaware.
All our hard work has helped us catch 5 mice! 5 less mice reproducing in my house all winter! Since we have yet to catch any in the main kitchen area I have removed those mouse traps so the kids and dogs can safely be in the kitchen once again.
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