I have two cats in the house ~ and I’ve been trying to capture a clever little mouse for the last few weeks?!? I finally heard a SNAP in the middle of the night last night: my mousetrap had SPRUNG closed. A little green plastic box that traps him inside. I carried the trap down the street a ways and released el ratoncito outside the vacation home of one of my filthy rich neighbors. He should have many months of carefree nibbles in their well-stocked kitchen.
Actually, it’s a she: two weeks ago I opened up a drawer in the kitchen, and it was stuffed with cotton-looking stuff, handfuls of it. I gathered up the fluff and tossed it in the trash; two days later, the drawer was full of fluff again. I finally figured out where the fluffy white stuff was coming from: insulation around my oven. Bad mouse. Any other material, and you’d have had a free ride. Baby mouse nest!? Not when you make my kitchen less energy efficient!
The saga began 3-4 weeks ago when I was remodeling a downstairs bedroom into a recording studio for my podcast. There were two queen-size beds that I’d made into a giant bunk bed; I arranged the four mattresses into a small soundproof alcove. very quiet… Unfortunately, the top mattress slowly collapsed downward and I had to dismantle the whole contraption before the inevitable happened.
As I was taking it all apart – Doh! – a little cache of cat food tucked into the folds of a blanket. . . Tiny little droppings in near the sink ~ Mouse sign!
A mouse camping out in Bevo’s bedroom? Absconding with her cat food? (Bevo is Cat #2 who I adopted a couple of years ago after she showed up in the middle of a bad snowstorm.) She stays in that bedroom every night ~ there are coyotes and foxes around here, and all domestic animals have to be kept inside at night. I’ve scolded Bevo severely when she brought a dead mole to the front porch, or a half-dead baby rabbit ~ never figured she’d let a mouse share her boudoir.
(My other cat, Oscar, is disabled ~ can’t jump and struggles to run; so I give her a pass on the mouse who set up residence in the kitchen upstairs.)
Bevo’s been behaving real strange all day ~ I think she actually misses our little rat friend.
Can’t say as I don’t feel the same way. . . .
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Excerpted from Going Green, available as an eBook at this list of eBook retailers online.