Eww. This blog post is not for the faint-hearted. Nor is it filled with happy pictures to make you feel good inside. This is a true, and very ugly story.
We have had a guest living in our house without permission for at least 8 months now. We have tried at least two different traps, poison, and cornering it. Yup, that's right. Cornering it. Yuck. The first time was about three months ago (maybe four). Jaren saw it one night go right into our stove. He was determined to get it. So we both started getting ready for it. We taped three garbage bags together and attached it to the stove with tape. When we finally opened the stove (like 45 minutes later) the mouse was not inside due to a large hole in the back that he would easily have fit through. Yes, exasperating.
Lately, we'd been seeing the mouse a LOT more. It's like he was finally getting really comfortable here. I actually saw him stop a few times in the middle of the room before dashing back behind the entertainment center. (I thought he was cute!!!) But, regardless of his good looks, he's scared the heebie jeebies out of me too many times. I really wanted him gone, and Jaren even more so.
Not last night, but the night before, 24 robbers came knocking at my door. OK, no. And it was actually in the afternoon. I opened the pantry doors to get ready for dinner and the mouse was RIGHT THERE! Yes, probably at chest level, right in front of me! I screamed, the mouse jumped super high, and then dashed to the back of the pantry. I stood for a second, completely mortified. Then I got my head back, closed the pantry, and told my sob story to J.J., who immediately put his sandals on and went to tell Dad. That's how he fixes things you know!
So, Jaren came in and decided that what we needed to do was take out all of the food in the pantry and have the trash can and some cardboard blocking/waiting to catch him. Again, I was mortified. I was sure that the mouse was long gone and that this was a waste of effort while at the same time worrying my head off that he would pop out and scare the living daylights out of me again. Grudgingly, I agreed to help my dh. So, guess who held the trash can and cardboard and who had to reach in and grab the food items one by one with her bare hands? I know, I must be totally insane to let him talk me into doing that.
So we went shelf by shelf until we got to the bottom one. Then, when we (I) was halfway through getting out the food from that shelf, I reached in to grab the vanilla and the mouse jumped up again right by my hand!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! And shiver too. Then the mouse ran into some bottles, so we knew where it was and I quickly put my hand back in the lion's den to get rid of the rest of the food. When we got to the bottles, I grabbed the broom and with the stick part started poking around in there. It got scared and ran around until it ended up in the trash can. Jaren quickly covered it with the cardboard and then opened it to look and make sure that it was in there. It tried to scramble up the side, startling both of us, and he slammed the cardboard back down and ran outside with it (after having to dodge three excited little boys who wanted to be right in the middle of this adventure).
We all went out for a second when Jar started to smash the trash can on the side of the steps. I didn't realize he meant to kill it...what an idiot I am. I was concerned that he let it go far enough away from our house! Silly Melinda. I was kind of grossed out and ushered the kids back inside who definitely didn't need to see that (and neither, of course, did I). He came back in after a minute and told me that after he slammed it a few times, the trash can broke, and the mouse got out and started slowly walking in a dazed manner. Then Jaren slammed the trash can on top of it and killed it. Ewww. He showed me. Double ewww. Then he put it in a bag and stuck it in our outside garbage.
So, there it is. The adventure that made me scream in horror. Hope you enjoyed it as little as I did.
