Mouse Trap

My family and I moved out to a little town in Northern Ontario this past October. We knew going into it we had mice around, its inevitable when you are in the country and our house is old with lots of cracks and places to get in. Knowing this we cleaned the poops we found when we moved in, made sure food was in cupboards they could hopefully not access. We also went as far as to take preventative measures and buy this mouse sonar thing that keeps them away. I convinced the husband not to buy mouse traps or poison as I didn’t want anything to die in here. I have a habit of trying to save them, even from my cat.

One morning my cat was acting odd, we had brought in a car seat from the car not thinking the crumbs the kids left in there would be a big deal. We thought the cat just liked scratching at the fabric like he does with everything. I went about my morning, got the kids ready for school, got home and the cat wouldn’t stop going over there so I put a baby gate up. He was relentless he knocked it over and got back over there. I was fed up with getting up to shoo the cat, so I decided to put the car seat outside and I lifted it up and out scurried a little mouse. So… I locked the cat in the bathroom till I could get him and secure the mouse.

My first thought was perfect! They like food I’ll get a cracker. As I’m sitting there with this cracker he’s running around hiding and finding the best escape plan. I gave up on the cracker and thought maybe I can grab him, then I re-evaluated that plan because I didn’t want a bite. So here I am looking at him making sure I know where he is, so I don’t lose him I’m thinking of the best action plan. And then I thought what will I put him in if I don’t want to grab him. And then I figured it out a plastic bowl of some sort! I can pin him on the wall and slide something under. So, I found an old rubber maid container and scared him into running up the brick wall to an area to capture him.

I GOT HIM! Slid him down the wall and had him trapped. This is when I got the picture of the little guy! Finally got him after a good 40 minutes. Now where to put him, as far away from the house that I could without having to take the car or release near someone else’s house. I put on my crocs and headed out the back door. Now being that it had just snowed a bit and the ground was wet was not a good combo for walking down a hill in shoes with no grip on the bottom. I’m walking carefully looking at the mouse saying soon you will be free. Then of course my foot slides, I fall, the mouse goes flying one direction, the container another and I continue down the hill on my ass.

I was laughing and crying, that had just happened while trying to save the mouse, and that I didn’t make it far enough away from the house with it. All the effort into catching this mouse was officially out the door because the end goal wasn’t good enough, but it was fine we haven’t seen him since. But we do have squirrels in the attic.