2.28.2015

The Smartest, Dumb Mouse

Dave and I have been in our house for close to 2.5 years. For the first two years, we only had one unwanted rodent guest.
This year, the city started construction on a new major road by our house. This new road has apparently evac
uated all the mice to our warm, cat-free and until recently trap-free house.  We have caught five mice this winter; FIVE.
They are pretty cunning mice too. Once we noticed that this infestation was becoming a bigger problem, thanks in part to a messy three-year-old who was pretty much providing a four-course meal; we invested in a team of mouse-traps armed with peanut butter bait.  Of the seven traps, only two ever caught mice, the others remained set, but peanut butter free.  Somehow these genius mice could get in these traps, eat the peanut butter and get out without setting the traps off.
I was getting pretty anxious near the end: the traps weren't working and these "lovely" rodents were giving me a different kind of wake up call every morning.
See, my shift at work started at 6:00 a.m., so I get up by 5:00 a.m. and leave shortly before 5:30 a.m. (I am luckily a minimalist when it comes to getting ready)
Every morning, I open the pantry door, only to see one of these lovely critters run around the pantry floor and either dash behind the fridge or scurry along the cabinets until it squeezes between the dishwasher and cupboards. Nothing will wake you up faster than a small rodent jumping over your feet in the morning.
One morning I encountered one of these weasel-like creatures, who had been evading capture and getting fat off our peanut butter.  This smart mouse is also super dumb.
Cameron has a habit of putting some of her push toys (ride/push Minnie Mouse car, stroller, etc) in the pantry for storage or something.  Well that morning, her Minnie Mouse coaster was sitting in the pantry and this super dumb/smart mouse runs around the pantry until he finds this great hiding spot. Only the moron doesn't fit under the coaster, so he pushes his little bum underneath the coaster and poking out like the worst hide-and-seek player ever.

So here he is obviously still in my pantry and I'm not quite sure what do with this stupid, smart mouse. I feel like he missed the short bus and I'm not about to burst his bubble. So I try to ignore him and get my food out of the pantry. While picking up my granola bar, the mouse rushes off to one of the popular hiding spots.
I don't know how a mouse can be both dumb and smart, but there he is.  Currently, we are mouse free, so we've caught him since that day. Poor guy, he was a survivor.