Last weekend, Mr. A swore he heard a mouse in our kitchen.
Because we live on a kind of wooded lot, this is not that surprising. We usually get a few mice each fall, but every once in a while one of the greedy little bastards will sneak in during other parts of the year.
I still wasn’t convinced we had a mouse, but I told Mr. A to set up the traps anyway. Then yesterday, the trap was sprung with no dead mouse in sight. By that point, I was a believer. Last night we set the trap again.
This morning, as I was lying in bed, I heard Mr. A scream “NOooooooooooooooo!” followed by a terrified cry from L.
I grabbed my glasses and ran downstairs.
By the time I got there, Mr. A was frantically scrubbing L’s hands in the bathroom sink.
“What the heck is going on?” I asked.
“She…was……..holding the mouse!!!” Mr. A said with a shudder.
Apparently, the mouse had dragged the trap out from under the counter before it died. Then L found it and walked up to Mr. A. She was squeezing the actual dead mouse in her hand.
Both Mr. A and I were thoroughly grossed out.
I hope that was the only one.
that is so funny to read, and i am so glad i was not there as you or Mr. A LOL
I actually had to get rid of a cat. I moved out in the country and we would get field mice on and off. I set traps but it was a losing battle. The problem was the cat decided to be a hunter after 5 years of being fat and lazy. She started bringing dead mice to me in bed while I was sleeping. I was having trouble sleeping – every sound made me sure the cat was bringing me a present. The final straw was one night she brought one and dropped it in my bed with me and it wasn’t dead. I have never moved so fast in my life. I catapulted myself over my husband and onto the floor on the other side of the bed while screaming. I still get creeped out thinking of it. She went to live on a farm.
Oh, ick! I am not a fan of mice. Ugh. But at first I thought you were going to say that L had gotten her hand caught in the trap, so at least she didn’t get hurt!
I have to share my mouse horror story. I was babysitting six or seven years ago for some neighbors. They warned me that they had some sticky traps out because they thought they had some mice, although they hadn’t caught any yet. I put the kids to bed, and when I came back out to the kitchen, there was a mouse in the trap squeaking bloody murder. Not only that, only its back legs were stuck in the trap, so it was crawling around the kitchen. Their open, but small, floor plan made it impossible to get away from the sight and sound of the mouse. It frantically dragged its body in circles around the kitchen. Eventually, it picked up the kitchen rug, and started dragging that around too. The parents didn’t get home until two in the morning. I had sat frozen on the couch for six hours, glancing over at the mouse every five seconds. The parents were mortified. I think they tipped well.
Still, I think yours tops mine. Did A drop the mouse to wash L’s hand? Let’s hope none of you have sustained permanent emotional trauma. Ick.
well, you could always ask you lovely neighbours to lend you their dog….. I’m sure that thing would love to rid you of your mouse problems!
ewwwwwwwww. scared to death of mice.
Meg
EEEEP!! That story itself will give me nightmares!
We, too, are currently contending with mice. It’s our first house and we also back on to woods, so I feel your pain. Happily, the mice are contained to one small area in our basement ceiling, but our poor cat would spend 12 hours a day (minimum) on top of bookcases near the mice because he could smell them. Poor, exhausted little guy.
We were convinced that there was one mouse, but so far our traps have caught 3. I am making Dave deal with it, though. I mean – I could do it, I just choose to let him. Yes. That’s my story.
Great Scott. This is making me gag. Poor Mr. A…and poor L, though she probably had no idea why!!!
Terrified of mice. This story makes me creeped out! Holding a mouse to me would be like being dropped in a snake pit for other people. Actually, I don’t think I’d like that either.
Ugh. Yuck. If that were my house someone would have ended up in the ER – husband from a heart attack or child from disinfectant burns.
My mouse story: When I was in college my parents moved to a very mouse-infested house. At one point I heard one in a kitchen drawer so I quietly grabbed one cat that had proved to be a good mouser, held her a bit out from my body, and opened the drawer. The mouse popped up about two feet. The cat shredded my arms and shoulder in a quick escape.
Hmmm… I hope no prospective buyers ever happen across your blog. :/
I did that when I was young but my mother (who otherwise could have won Mother of the Year) instead of removing it from my ands and washing them JUMPED (I don’t even remember her using the chair) on the kitchen table and started to scream. I can’t remember who came to help me.
Glad he acted fast before those little hands touched her own or her sister’s face.
eek!
Oh my god. I would have died on the spot. Not being dramatic- I just really hate mice.
We live in an old house and have dealt with them on and off. This winter was a bad one- but I think we have killed them off. I will never forget sitting on our couch one evening and a mouse just ambled out from underneath the couch, across our living room and into our kitchen. I suppose it was time for a snack.
I didn’t sit on the couch for a month.
Gross-I just got a sudden flashback of the time we thought it would be a bright idea to put peanuts on the sticky traps in my cubicle before we left at the end of the day…and then walking in the next morning to find a mouse that got caught on the sticky trap, had tried to gnaw off its own legs to free itself (unsuccessfully) and remained alive–and the maintenance guys were nowhere to be found to remove this from my cubicle!
To quote my mother, “There is no such thing as one mouse.” Keep the traps set for at least another week.
Right now I am groving on L. What a girl!
When we moved in to our present home, we discovered that we had mice living in our range – Not the baking portion, but the insulation around the oven and under the stovetop elements. We replaced that range w/ a new one, and 2 months later, when I went for a glass of water at 10 pm, I startled a wee mousie, who ran across the counter, across the stovetop, and popped into a tiny vent slit to disappear into the hidden depths of the range. Much trapping & sealing later, our range is mouse-free (as far as we know, anyway). I think I’d know, because when the old oven was set to convection, we’d get the odor of warming mouse pee blown into the kitchen. Ick. Just so very Ick.
Here is my mom’s mouse story.
She sat down on their toilet to go to the bathroom and looked down and suddenly saw a mouse SWIMMING in the toilet. Needless to say, she shreaked and yelled my dad’s name. I have never seen my dad coming running so fast. Since it was alive, they had to take the plunger and drown the mouse and then flush it away. My parents live in the city so it must have snuck in an open door since they have never had problems since or before the incident with mice.
YIKES!!!! Eeeew
We had 3 such little creatures in our house in the past month. My three year old actually kept saying how cute they were even after they were dead. I can’t stand mice.
Rebecca’s story is also my story! We are selling our house, too, and I went to run the self-cleaning oven feature and it wouldn’t work. When the repair guys came, they found it wouldn’t work because there was a mouse nest in there, including an artificial cork from a wine bottle that the mice had dragged in there (?) and which had melted onto the self-cleaning oven lock. I guess it was nice and warm!
GROSS. In my view, this is just one more reason to move!
Funny story and what a brave little L! I am terrified of mice too. : )
And since a few people added their good mouse stories, i’ll share with you mine, as well.
In Denver one summer when I was visiting for the summer with my oldest son, I think he was 2 years old at the time, and my youngest wasn’t born yet. Anyways. My dad and I noticed a tiny little brown mouses that would run from the 2 car garage to the vegetable garden we had sorta back and forth. This little mouse would cruise back and forth, and we’d see him as we would sit and enjoy the backyard during the summer. Anyway, my dad bought a mouse trap and set it in the vegetable garden, in hopes we’d catch the little guy. The vegetable garden was fenced in and closed and taller then my son however I told Branden not to go in the garden and to never touch the mouse trap for fear he’d lose a finger or something. He didn’t seem the least bit interested and for days didn’t even go near the garden. Then one day, I was inside fixing some lunch for us together and I heard this blood curdling scream, it was my son! Holy crap! I went running and sure enough he touched the mouse trap, and it caught his finger, not the mouse. Good thing he didn’t loose a finger. But it was red for a while. After washing it and running it under cold water, his big crocodile tears slowed down some. He never touched the trap again. And I think it gave me a mini heart attack too. : )
And yes we did catch the mouse! : )