Two mice and counting

kw: local events, animals, pests

A week ago I caught a mouse in a glue trap, in the family room. It is a common place for them to hide once they get in through the garage. In the past, at most one mouse gets in each year. Sometimes, instead, one will stay in the garage and build a nest there, which we find quite a bit later.

This evening, there was a ruckus in the kitchen, and we saw our cat had trapped another mouse. It got loose long enough to run down the basement stairs, where it hid among some shoes and sandals piled on the lower landing. I went down and encouraged the cat, but it was clear she didn't know quite what to do. A cat that gets raised by a good mouser for a mother learns to dispatch them with a bite through the neck.

After watching the hide-and-seek for a little while, I noted where the mouse was, under the toe of a sandal. I punched down on the sandal, stunning the mouse, which I popped into a plastic bag and then into the freezer. Come trash day, mouse, bag and all, will be moved to the trash and disposed of.

It is a bit of a shame to kill a one-ounce mouse, but I've tried letting them alone in the past, many years ago, and they gradually take over. They are like Tribbles, only slower. They really do need to be exterminated once they get inside. A pity.