I've dealt with squirrels and centipedes and kept my sanity but today I was shocked out of my mind. About 25 years ago I saw a mouse in the house and my husband set traps and caught two. I never saw another mouse after that. A few years ago I saw evidence that there were mice in the house because the stash of toilet paper under the bathroom sink was shredded. Slightly horrified, I put a whole pile of D-Con around the house and never did see a mouse or evidence of one again.
This morning I was playing on the computer and a mouse strolled by. If the windows had been open the neighbors would have thought someone was killing me. I screamed loudly and repeatedly as I tried to tell myself I was seeing things but the darned thing just kept running around the room. I was at a total loss as to what I should do because I'd never had to deal with anything like this before. I phoned the pest control company and begged them to come and catch the damn thing but they said they don't actually catch mice, they set out poison traps for them. I seriously considered going to live with Kim until the traps killed any living thing in my house but somehow I managed to calm down (a bit) and accepted the pest control man's offer to be at my house in a few hours.
In the meantime, I was a nervous wreck, afraid to go into the livingroom but afraid to let the friggin' mouse out of my sight. It would disappear for a few minutes and then stroll by again, setting me off on another bout of screaming. I then did something that I'm not proud of. My defence against bugs is to spray the living daylights out of them with Raid and that's what I did to the mouse. It had an effect because the icky thing slowed down enough for me to get a colander (I wanted something disposable) and trap it underneath. I laid a heavy glass dish on top of the colander to weigh it down.
Not being able to stay in the house with a live mouse, I got my Swedish weaving together and went out in the yard to wait for the pest control people.
When he arrived, he was greeted by an old lady wringing her hands and rambling incoherently. He was very kind and told me he'd take care of my problem. He has red hair like Matt and I love him.
He shoved a piece of cardboard under the colander to trap the mouse and tossed it outside. I watched in terror but I had to see that critter leave or I wouldn't believe it was gone. Apparently it was almost dead anyway from the Raid I sprayed on it. My saviour put a bunch of poisoned food traps around the house because if one mouse got in, another could have also. I wrote him a cheque for $169.50 and thanked him profusely.
I think this thing got in the front door because there is a gap under the storm door that Don, the handyman, couldn't seem to close properly. I will never leave the front door open again.
Somehow I've been able to convince myself that maybe, just maybe only that one mouse got into my house. It could happen, you know. I have to tell myself this or I might not be able to sleep here tonight. The poison traps could take days to kill off any other mouse that might be in here. I prefer to think my mouse was travelling alone. I hope he was.
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