Not Exactly Mickey Mouse

If you know me well, you know that I consider Disneyland my home away from home. I can actually say I feel "homesick" for the place when I'm not there. I'm quite proud of my obsession with all things Disney and have always been Mickey Mouse's #1 fan!
Well, the past few days I've had a bit of a reason not to enjoy the origin of this otherwise cute and lovable character.

We have an uninvited house guest staying with us these days...that's right. We've been cursed with the presence of a mouse in our house. It started on Thursday night when I was home alone with Tucker (our dog), and he was feverishly whining and pawing at a corner behind the desk. I was quite irritated by it and trying to ignore him, thinking that perhaps while we had been out earlier in the evening, he had seen a big bug go behind there and was now out of his crate and available to "get it". His fur was raised and he was growling at the corner. Needless to say, being home alone and 8 months pregnant, this was not a calming experience. The next morning, before I left for work, I informed Brant of Tucker's behavior the night before. He proceeded to move the desk out of the way and found several mouse droppings awaiting discovery. After a bit of discussion, we decided that we have 2 weeks left and perhaps the mouse had left us alone. We decided that if indeed the mouse had stayed with us, Tucker would be alert and alarm us of it's whereabouts.

Long story short, on Saturday, we found more mouse droppings on the opposite side of the house, particularly in the kitchen; on the stove, on the counter top and on the floor. They were never in large quantities, just here and there. DISGUSTING!! It really makes you not want to cook or eat anything out of a kitchen that has been trespassed through by a mouse.

Last night, Brant woke up about 3:00 thinking he was hearing some cords by his night stand shifting around. He shined his cell phone light around the area searching for anything. I woke up and saw what was happening, but chose not to let him know I was aware, because I didn't need to know what he saw or heard. In the end, it didn't matter because both of us were pretty restless and uneasy the rest of the night after that!

This morning, we found more droppings in the kitchen and a special dose next to Brant's bedside. Immediately, Brant went to Fred Meyer before church to pick up some mouse traps. He bought some of these super gluey pads, placed cheese on them and proceeded to place 6 of them in several areas throughout the house. Throughout church, I was fervently praying for the traps to work and for us to be able to come home to a mouse-trapped house. My prayers were not strong enough I guess...

We came home to find two of the traps had changed position, with the cheese still intact. The real kicker was that both traps had mouse paw prints all over them! It was absolutely ridiculous! We got back in the car, drove to Fred Meyer again, and purchased 8 of the standard "guillotine" mouse traps. We had a few out during the day while we were packing up the house, but no such luck. I didn't really think a mouse would be stupid enough to come out while people were tromping around the house, but hey! It was worth a shot.

We now come to this evening. We've been out for several hours with friends and have come home to find all 8 traps still completely locked and loaded. As we stood dumbfounded in the kitchen, we suddenly started hearing little scraping sounds. We believe we have narrowed down the area of the mouse's hiding place to under/around the oven. Brant pulled out the bottom drawer that holds all of our pots to find a plethora of mouse droppings (but no mouse). We now have set traps throughout the kitchen and under the oven and blocked (we hope) both entrances to the kitchen. Now we wait. The sweetest sound for me this evening will be when I hear a loud "SNAP" coming from the kitchen. Aww...sweet relief. And then I'll send Brant in to pick up the remains. :) He can't wait. (I think it's more that he can't wait for his wimpy, pregnant, hormonal wife to chill out about the ordeal).

Please stay tuned. I hope I will have a victory post to write for you in the morning.