Mouse in the House

I had a mouse living in my kitchen. My first instinct when I realized that I had a mouse was to simply live and let live. I resolved not to leave food on the counter and would just let the mouse do it’s thing because mice are cute and I figured it would be kind of like a pet that I didn’t have to take care of. But then I would occasionally find little mouse poops on the counter and that really grossed me out. So…I resolved to get rid of the mouse.

My parents gave me a this thing they got from the Sharper Image catalog that emits high pitched noises and keeps the mice away. It actually works…sort of. It kept the mouse off the counter where I placed the weird noise emitter thingie but the mouse didn’t leave the kitchen and instead started prowling the floor. This was less gross since the poops were on the floor and not the counter. I would occasionally find them in the dogs’ dishes too but I figured that while that is something that grosses *me* out, it probably was considered a benefit by the dogs who also like to snack out of the kitty litter box whenever they have the opportunity. In fact, if dog food manufacturers were actually marketing their products to dogs, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a dog food bag with a label that said “New and Improved: Now with added mouse poop for flavor!”

Still, I wanted the mouse gone. I was trying to figure out how I could set traps on the floor without the traps snapping the noses of dogs when my elderly cat *finally* caught the sucker. I was sitting in the other room when it happened. I have read that cats like to teach other cats how to hunt and will often bring a wounded or stunned mouse back to the other cats so they can have an opportunity to hunt the thing. I have also read that cats occasionally think of their owners as cats and so it must be with mine as she brought that live mouse over to me and deposited it in my lap. I jumped up screaming and the poor thing landed on the floor and made a run for it. As it found safety under the easy chair, my cat gave me a “why did you let it get away” look and then tried to reach the poor thing by reaching her paw under the chair. She eventually gave up and I suspect the mouse made it’s escape some hours later when the cat went to bed.

I haven’t seen the mouse since then. Also since then, I have not seen any evidence of the mouse. No mouse poops on the counter or floor. No chewed upon boxes. No nothing. I suspect that to a mouse, finding oneself in the jaws of a cat (even an elderly slow one) is quite a deterrent. Possibly even more of a deterrent than the Sharper Image anti-rodent noise maker. Still, I am keeping that sucker on just in case some different mouse is thinking of taking up residence in my kitchen.