We've Been Having a Little Visitor...

I can't even remember for sure what day it was that we first discovered the 'visitor', but I think it was Wednesday. It must have been Tuesday night that Zach slept on the couch because of something like Jacob being up all night...anyway, the next morning he told me that he'd heard a suspicious scritching through the night and he looked in the drawer under the over to confirm his theory. A little mouse had come to visit.

Now I know we have mice in the house. It's inevitable this time of year. And while I'm not happy about it, I tolerate the little creatures because I figure this land was their home first and it was taken from them when the house was built. So as long as they stay in their area (the attic) and I stay in mine, we can all happily coexist. However, by coming into my kitchen this mouse crossed the boundary line. I'm not so much afraid of mice themselves, I think they're cute, I've held them before, but the actual fact that one climbed all over the muffin tins, cake pans, trays, etc, possibly spreading mouse diseases threw me over the edge. It's a good thing my plans for the day were cancelled because it pretty much took the whole day to clean everything. I made Zach take care of the actual poop part and then I got started with the hot, soapy water, the bleach, emptying the dishwasher, baking the tins and trays after they'd been cleaned and sterilized again.

At the end of the day when the light was gone and Zach had done all the yard work he could, he came in and got to work moving the stove to investigate how the mouse got it. It was pretty clear right off the bat. Let's just say that this side of the kitchen is up against the scummy back porch that we are going to knock down and there are plenty of places for a mouse to get in. Infact, there was a mouse right there, demonstrating how one would get in. Zach called from the kitchen and told me it was just sitting there looking at him. I wanted to see it too, but before I could do that I had to find towels and books to stack around each opening and crack so that when Zach moved and the mouse inevitably fled, we would have it trapped and could capture it (and set free in the woods). Finally I was ready to come see the mouse, I just hoped that it hadn't run away yet. I guess we figured that it was just in shock and as long as Zach stood still it would too. Then Zach moved. And I came over. And we moved the light around. And the mouse stayed there. The mouse didn't move at all. Not a good sign. We argued for a minute as to whether it was d-e-a-d or not. So Jacob wanted to see it too. We showed him and had to make up some happy story about why the mouse was not moving.

I was thoroughly grossed out and decided to take Jacob up to bed to read so that Zach could take care of the 'dead' mouse. At least the problem was temporarily taken care of because now that Zach knew what he needed to get at the hardware store, we just had to get through Thanksgiving and wait til the stores opened back up on Friday.

About half an hour later Zach came upstairs with his hands cupped to his chest. I quickly sat up in bed and pushed myself back towards the wall as far as I could. "You did not!" I shouted at him. Then remembering who I was dealing with, I calmed down and called his bluff. Zach has tried to fool me more times than is good for him, so now I just know not to believe him. So he didn't have the mouse in his hand, and as it turns out there was no mouse to begin with. It was a little cat-toy mouse. We felt like idiots. It was the right size and shape, just not real. All that trouble we'd gone to. We don't have a cat, so that thing could have been there for years. Kind of ironic that we were looking for mouse evidence and actually found a fake mouse. Isn't that just a little weird? I wonder what that means.