Apr
1
Written by:
Sherri
4/1/2009 9:04 PM
Who dared to show up uninvited, with such rude table manners that he climbed up on the table and started eating before it was ready???? A little gray MOUSE
. That's right...we don't have the picture of him on the table to show it, but we had a mouse this past weekend that was unashamed and not scared of people. (We do have a pic of him on the dining room chairs though!)
It was late Sunday evening and we were trying to get dinner on the table. As usual, we had the table set with silverware, our vitamins & supplements, and a few food items had already been placed on. One of those items was Jonathan's leftover bowl of stir-fried rice from lunch (the boys' leftovers go on the table the next meal to be eaten first). I'm in the kitchen finishing up the food when Joshua walks in the dining room. Now Joshua is the family jokster and comedian. He makes sure we get our daily laugh... or two! He calmly says to me, "Mom, there's a mouse on our table". I thought, yeah, sure there is buddy! He walks on back to the family room, leaving me alone in the kitchen and dining rooms. I look back at the table a minute later and what do I see but a little gray mouse IN THE BOWL of rice, calmly eating! I was not calm and called Ted to quickly come to the dining room. He arrives and starts to move towards getting our camera when the boys come excitedly in and scare the poor fellow. Off he scampers to the sunroom and hides behind the piano.
For the next 2 hours we play "cat and mouse" with this creature who turned out to be NOT frightened of people at all! I found out that I am VERY FRIGHTENED of mice!! (the boys got used to me screaming that night!) We saw him run back up one of our chairs, go all around the table, then go around all the chairs...eating the crumbs on the chair seats! I saw him running towards me in the kitchen, so I headed the opposite direction around the island...only to meet the mouse who had also changed direction around the other corner of the island! At one point, Ted was on the phone to a friend of ours getting advice about how to solve this problem so that I'll go to bed... (so that Ted can get some sleep!) The mouse had already disarmed 2 mouse traps without setting them off! Our friend Connie was on the phone asking questions and the silly little creature was running back and forth not more than a foot away from Ted's feet! We got advice about what brand of mouse trap to buy the next day (yes, there are differences!) and I threatened to bring the kitties inside to "mouse". I would have, except Ted and Jonathan are allergic to cats and we weren't sure our young kitties have actually moused before!!
First thing after breakfast the next morning, I'm on my way to the local hardware store to buy the "other brand" of mouse trap! I actually bought a dozen of the things...just in case we had some "bleeders" like we did earlier 
. All day long I'm thinking of this mouse and planning my day so that we have an early supper and get out of the kitchen before he reappears (the mice have usually made their appearance at our farmhouse around 9ish). Of course, all day long I made sure one of the boys was with me in the kitchen keeping a watchout for mice! We accomplish an early dinner and get out of the kitchen in plenty of time. The boys go off to bed and Ted & I stay well away from the kitchen area to give the mouse plenty of quiet time to come out . Of course, we're both silently praying that we hear a trap go off BEFORE we go to bed so that we can actually get some sleep. Sure enough, not more than 10 minutes of quiet was all it took before we heard the "snap" of the trap. I had no regrets seeing the poor creature...flat on his back with his little legs up in the air. Ted said he was still kicking when he found him. Of course, Ted always gets the job of taking the creatures outside 
.
Lessons learned:
- we've quit setting the table early
- when we do get food on the table, we always have a boy to guard it
- when we sit down to eat, we always have a boy watching our food left on the kitchen counter
- we ALWAYS keep our mouse traps ready and armed
- we've bought supplies to section off the kitchen/dining areas in case we have to bring a kitty in
- I'm working on getting used to seeing the mice...no they are NOT like my pet hamsters!