Critters, poop, and a spoiled girl
We are no strangers to unwelcome critters around here. One of the perils of living in the country, I suppose.
The lizard in the house was entertaining. The snake in the house was absolutely terrifying. Once the terror wore off though, it was stinkin hilarious.
And now may I present our most recent critter story. One that at least starts out as hilarious.
I'm fairly certain this happened on Thursday, June 19. I know it was super early on a Thursday morning, but the weeks have all run together and I don't remember the exact date.
Anyhow, I was asleep on the couch, where I more often than not crash when thesnoring noise level in Brandon's and my room gets too loud.
Aden woke me up around 4AM to go potty. I took him, put him back to bed, and laid back down on the couch. I thought I heard something strange, but our fridge tends to make odd noises, so chalked it up to that and fell asleep.
At 4:30, Aden woke me again asking if it was time to get up yet. I told him no and took him back to bed, then laid back down on the couch again. Almost immediately I heard the strange noise again, and this time it sounded like it came from the room I was in.
I went to grab my glasses, turned the light on in the living room, and sat down on the piano bench (feet curled up under me and not on the floor!) just to look around and listen.
I heard the noise again but didn't see anything. Until about five minutes later, when a small gray mouse emerged from behind our big chair, starting to head over toward the couch.
I quietly gasped, which scared him back behind the chair. Then I ran into our bedroom, violently shook Brandon awake telling him there was a mouse in the house, then sprinted back to the living room so the mouse would stay there.
I can't remember how long I held him at bay in the living room while Brandon tried to figure out what to do. But at some point, that mouse got super bold and ran right past me out of the living room.
He scampered down the hall into Aden's room. Of course I'm running after him. I flip on the light in Aden's room and shout, "Aden, GET UP!" He sits straight up in bed, groggily looks at the mouse running across his room, and says, "What is that yellow mouse?"
The mouse ran over to a tall racetrack toy that is in the corner of Aden's room, tried to climb the ramps for the little cars, but slid back down instead. Then ran out of Aden's room.
This time we chased him into our bedroom and under our bed. And here he stayed, swatted back several times by me, until Brandon built a barricaded path out our door, through the living room, and out the front door.
This took a while, but when it was ready, I climbed up on the bed to scare the mouse out from under it. He slowly followed the barricade and, after a little more coaxing, went out the front door.
Which was very quickly shut behind him.
After a few body shudders and looking around at the mess of furniture everywhere, we decided it was time to clean up.
Brandon just happened to be looking in at the kitchen, when all of a sudden, he saw another mouse peek his head out from under the stove and then run into the pantry under the door.
And so, we set up another barricade and opened the side door to the house, which is right next to the pantry. Took a while and we had to be very quiet, but eventually that little guy headed out the door.
Which was very quickly shut behind him.
Ugh.
It was after 6AM when we finally got the house put back together. Trey slept through the whole thing, all the screaming, stomping, and scuffling. Aden slept through everything except me running into his room after the mouse and shouting at him. He fell back asleep after we left his room.
We seem to like taking the road less traveled. We suck up lizards and snakes in a vacuum cleaner, and we chase mice from inside our house instead of having a trap to catch them.
Oh, you bet I bought some traps that day, and set them that night. Also called an exterminator, who set some sticky and metal traps. Which made this ignorant little spoiled girl feel much better.
In trying to get on the Internet one morning maybe a day or two later, something was wrong with the router, which was in the basement. I went downstairs to find one of the sticky traps lined with mouse fur, which apparently the beast had chewed off of himself in order to get free, and the power cord to our router chewed through. And mouse poop all over the couch. And mouse poop next to all three snap traps, whose bait had all been eaten off but had not snapped.
Cue the rage. And then double the rage when I started inspecting other areas of the house, only to find that we had mouse poop everywhere. I'm talking, these guys had climbed into one of our kitchen drawers, tore open a pack of Brandon's sunflower seeds, carried them to our silverware drawer, and ate them there. There was poop everywhere. In every room.
By this time, I'm a basketcase. I shoved old towels in the spaces under the basement and pantry doors to hopefully prevent the mice from moving around as much, threw out almost everything that had been in the pantry, and disinfected practically every square inch of the house. And then called the exterminator to come back.
By the time he came, one of the metal traps in the pantry had caught and killed a mouse. He removed that, then wanted to see the fur-lined sticky trap downstairs, so we opened the basement door to find that the towel I had shoved under the door had been gnawed to shreds on the basement side, as another mouse had tried to get into the main part of the house.
When we get mice, we get hulk mice. Apparently.
He set several more traps (bringing our total to twenty, I believe), these with some kind of mouse-luring jelly bait. The next day, there was a dead mouse in one of these new traps downstairs.
Whether these were the same two mice we had chased out, and they found their way back in, or if there were originally four mice, who knows.
Either way, mad paranoia. Haven't been able to bring myself to sleep on the couch since then. It just freaks me out to know that guy was in there while I was sleeping that night. And who knows how many nights before. Bleh!!
In fact, it was several weeks before I would allow Brandon some man cave time, as I refused to be alone in a room after dark. Terrified.
It is a funny story, but funny with lasting effects. The lizard and snake came in and went out in the span of maybe an hour, with the help of my trusty vacuum cleaner. But who knows how long those mice had been there before my early-morning discovery that day. Oh, I'm just disgusted. Even now, a month later.
But we're better prepared now. There are a few traps in conspicuous places. The pantry has been restocked, and most all of the food is now in plastic storage containers. And the house is as germ-free as it's ever been. So it wasn't for naught.
I feel like such a weenie, because people talk about mice like it's no big deal, happens to them all the time. This was our first bout with mice, even out here in the country and in an older house. But it completely rocked my world. When my home doesn't feel like home, I'm not OK.
Spoiled. Rotten.
The lizard in the house was entertaining. The snake in the house was absolutely terrifying. Once the terror wore off though, it was stinkin hilarious.
And now may I present our most recent critter story. One that at least starts out as hilarious.
I'm fairly certain this happened on Thursday, June 19. I know it was super early on a Thursday morning, but the weeks have all run together and I don't remember the exact date.
Anyhow, I was asleep on the couch, where I more often than not crash when the
Aden woke me up around 4AM to go potty. I took him, put him back to bed, and laid back down on the couch. I thought I heard something strange, but our fridge tends to make odd noises, so chalked it up to that and fell asleep.
At 4:30, Aden woke me again asking if it was time to get up yet. I told him no and took him back to bed, then laid back down on the couch again. Almost immediately I heard the strange noise again, and this time it sounded like it came from the room I was in.
I went to grab my glasses, turned the light on in the living room, and sat down on the piano bench (feet curled up under me and not on the floor!) just to look around and listen.
I heard the noise again but didn't see anything. Until about five minutes later, when a small gray mouse emerged from behind our big chair, starting to head over toward the couch.
I quietly gasped, which scared him back behind the chair. Then I ran into our bedroom, violently shook Brandon awake telling him there was a mouse in the house, then sprinted back to the living room so the mouse would stay there.
I can't remember how long I held him at bay in the living room while Brandon tried to figure out what to do. But at some point, that mouse got super bold and ran right past me out of the living room.
He scampered down the hall into Aden's room. Of course I'm running after him. I flip on the light in Aden's room and shout, "Aden, GET UP!" He sits straight up in bed, groggily looks at the mouse running across his room, and says, "What is that yellow mouse?"
The mouse ran over to a tall racetrack toy that is in the corner of Aden's room, tried to climb the ramps for the little cars, but slid back down instead. Then ran out of Aden's room.
This time we chased him into our bedroom and under our bed. And here he stayed, swatted back several times by me, until Brandon built a barricaded path out our door, through the living room, and out the front door.
This took a while, but when it was ready, I climbed up on the bed to scare the mouse out from under it. He slowly followed the barricade and, after a little more coaxing, went out the front door.
Which was very quickly shut behind him.
After a few body shudders and looking around at the mess of furniture everywhere, we decided it was time to clean up.
Brandon just happened to be looking in at the kitchen, when all of a sudden, he saw another mouse peek his head out from under the stove and then run into the pantry under the door.
And so, we set up another barricade and opened the side door to the house, which is right next to the pantry. Took a while and we had to be very quiet, but eventually that little guy headed out the door.
Which was very quickly shut behind him.
Ugh.
It was after 6AM when we finally got the house put back together. Trey slept through the whole thing, all the screaming, stomping, and scuffling. Aden slept through everything except me running into his room after the mouse and shouting at him. He fell back asleep after we left his room.
We seem to like taking the road less traveled. We suck up lizards and snakes in a vacuum cleaner, and we chase mice from inside our house instead of having a trap to catch them.
Oh, you bet I bought some traps that day, and set them that night. Also called an exterminator, who set some sticky and metal traps. Which made this ignorant little spoiled girl feel much better.
In trying to get on the Internet one morning maybe a day or two later, something was wrong with the router, which was in the basement. I went downstairs to find one of the sticky traps lined with mouse fur, which apparently the beast had chewed off of himself in order to get free, and the power cord to our router chewed through. And mouse poop all over the couch. And mouse poop next to all three snap traps, whose bait had all been eaten off but had not snapped.
Cue the rage. And then double the rage when I started inspecting other areas of the house, only to find that we had mouse poop everywhere. I'm talking, these guys had climbed into one of our kitchen drawers, tore open a pack of Brandon's sunflower seeds, carried them to our silverware drawer, and ate them there. There was poop everywhere. In every room.
By this time, I'm a basketcase. I shoved old towels in the spaces under the basement and pantry doors to hopefully prevent the mice from moving around as much, threw out almost everything that had been in the pantry, and disinfected practically every square inch of the house. And then called the exterminator to come back.
By the time he came, one of the metal traps in the pantry had caught and killed a mouse. He removed that, then wanted to see the fur-lined sticky trap downstairs, so we opened the basement door to find that the towel I had shoved under the door had been gnawed to shreds on the basement side, as another mouse had tried to get into the main part of the house.
When we get mice, we get hulk mice. Apparently.
He set several more traps (bringing our total to twenty, I believe), these with some kind of mouse-luring jelly bait. The next day, there was a dead mouse in one of these new traps downstairs.
Whether these were the same two mice we had chased out, and they found their way back in, or if there were originally four mice, who knows.
Either way, mad paranoia. Haven't been able to bring myself to sleep on the couch since then. It just freaks me out to know that guy was in there while I was sleeping that night. And who knows how many nights before. Bleh!!
In fact, it was several weeks before I would allow Brandon some man cave time, as I refused to be alone in a room after dark. Terrified.
It is a funny story, but funny with lasting effects. The lizard and snake came in and went out in the span of maybe an hour, with the help of my trusty vacuum cleaner. But who knows how long those mice had been there before my early-morning discovery that day. Oh, I'm just disgusted. Even now, a month later.
But we're better prepared now. There are a few traps in conspicuous places. The pantry has been restocked, and most all of the food is now in plastic storage containers. And the house is as germ-free as it's ever been. So it wasn't for naught.
I feel like such a weenie, because people talk about mice like it's no big deal, happens to them all the time. This was our first bout with mice, even out here in the country and in an older house. But it completely rocked my world. When my home doesn't feel like home, I'm not OK.
Spoiled. Rotten.
Comments
I was the lucky one who found the body in the garage while my dad was away on a trip. Yuck! I ran over to the new neighbor's house. "Hello, my name is Cindy. My dad lives next door. Welcome to the neighborhood. I have a big favor to ask of your husband. My dad is away and I have a dead rat in his garage that I need to dispose of and honestly, I think I'll puke if I have to look at it." The husband was kind enough to help this gal in distress. Thank God for the kindness of others.
I hope not to have to deal with that again anytime in the near future. Good luck to you as well :)