I have a problem. I have a mouse in the house that is trying very hard to outsmart me.
I’ve had the sensation of being watched a few times in my kitchen. Each time, it was the mouse peeking out from the underneath the stove burner, watching me. As soon as it knew that it had been seen, it would scurry across and down the stove and across the floor. I’ve lost track of how many times that I have disinfected and cleaned the stove, counters and floor because the thought of that mouse being in my home, and the kitchen, just makes me sick. I have nightmares about it.
Mouse traps have been set many times on top of the stove. That’s my only choice for now. (Sorry D-Con, but I have my beloved puppy and parrot in the house.) The bait: peanut butter, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese and pimento cheese. The next morning, I get up to find that the bait from all six mousetraps is gone, but none of the traps have been set off. It’s like I’m dealing with Houdini reincarnated into a mouse!
My beloved Stubby, a Jack Russell Terrier, was an excellent mouser. No mouse was safe on his watch. As long as Stubby was around, I never needed a mouse trap. Sadly, after 8 1/2 years, Stubby passed away last summer. Not long after that, the mice would occasionally show up. All have been vanquished except for one, “Houdini.”
My new Jack Russell puppy, Jake, has come nose to nose with the mouse only once. He had no interest in killing it. Jake just stood there and looked at it, as if thinking to himself, “OK, I see it. Now what?” After a few seconds, the mouse just scurried past him without a care in the world.
So, for now, it is just the two of us. Me against the mouse, one trying to outwit the other. So far, the mouse is still winning.
Photo: Fotolia/fergregory
