How to catch a mouse

The past few weeks I had a visitor at my home. Normally this little creature stayed outside, but because of all the rain and the temperature falling I guess he wanted to move inside. And so he did. He created a new home in the kitchen, under the dishwasher and lived happily ever after… NOT…

 As much as I love pets, I don’t like a mouse to walk across my living room and look at me while I’m eating a sandwich.

There are many ways to catch them. My kids wanted to try at first. They had lots of ideas.

But I didn’t want experiments like Tom always tried to catch Jerry, and since I like pets ( at least I don’t want to kill them in the Stephen King way), I went to the pet store and bought a very nice mouse trap.

Not a glue trap, not a snap trap, no poison, not a expensive electronic trap or an ultrasonic one, just a simple live trap, because a wanted to catch the little creature in a humane way so I could set him free again some miles away from our home.

I put some peanut butter in the trap and waited. I waited one day, waited two days…. And every evening Jerry looked at the trap and started walking across my living room again. Putting on his sad face and trying to tell me something. Maybe he didn’t like peanut butter or something or he simply wasn’t hungry.

At my old home he would not survive for more than five minutes probably, because our cat would have started to throw him around the room until he was dead and then Tart would probably put it in my lap after she had woke me up in my bed. But there is no Tart anymore.

I told Jerry what to do, but he didn’t listen. He just walked to the kitchen again and hides himself again.

Night after night the same ritual. He came out of the kitchen, walked across the room, sat under the chair, hides behind the TV and walked back. Without making any sound, without saying goodnight and left the mouse trap were it was, didn’t came close to it.

Yesterday it was quiet in the living room. Too quiet to be exactly. I want to the kitchen and to look at the trap. Had he finally found his way inside? No he didn’t. The trap was still empty. But where was Jerry? He didn’t come out into the living room. Had he moved out?  I even started to miss the little rascal. 

So it was time to start my ritual of the day. Cleaning the kitchen, mopping the floor, leaving no crumb for Jerry. I got the bucket and threw out the water I had forgotten to throw out yesterday.  My youngest son, standing next to me, suddenly started to scream…”Mom, look.. There’s Jerry!”

 Jerry didn’t move, he was dead, drowned in the water I left in the bucket the night before. Did he want to go for a swim? Did he kill himself? Stupid mouse….he could at least try the trap for just one time……

FOR SALE:

Humane Mouse trap, never been used.....

mouse thought he could swim...