I knew there was a mouse in the utility closet this morning because Sweet Pea ran right up to that closet door when he walked out of the TV room. Sweet Pea can smell a mouse a mile away, and he's even caught one in our pantry. That poor mouse was dead in an instant and Sweet Pea presented it to me as if it were The Holy Grail.
But this morning, a mouse was inside the closet and I knew it must have gotten caught on one of the glue-traps that we keep in there. I hate those glue-trap things, and my husband thinks they're very inhumane, but honestly, they work each and every time. One thing you have to do is keep your cat away from them, whether they have a mouse caught on them or not..... I wouldn't want to be prying a cat's paw off of one of those sticky little traps.
My husband was still sleeping when I got up this morning, so I had to remove that mouse on my own. Back into the TV room went Sweet Pea, and he wasn't too happy because he knew I'd be taking away 'his' mouse. I bought one of those long BBQ-tongs just to use for the glue-traps. The tongs-thing is about 14" long, so I can stretch my arm out as far as I can, pick up the glue-trapped mouse with the tongs, and put mouse and all into a trash bag without getting too close to the darned thing.
I absolutely hate doing that chore, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, without waking up a sleeping husband or calling one of the neighbors. All the while with those tongs and the glue-trap, I was apologizing to the mouse. "I'm sorry, sorry, really really sorry...." And I truly was. I don't know how long it takes until the mouse dies on one of those traps, but I know it's not pleasant. But I don't want a mouse in the house, no matter how small it is.
Our two outside cats have caught mice from time to time..... they either leave them near the back steps so I can see the results of their hunt (Gatsby does that), or the mice are played with like cat-toys (that would be Mickey, who will play with a mouse till either the mouse gets tired and plays dead, or Mickey gets tired and just takes a nap on the spot).
I can't blame country living for the mice population..... even when we lived in Clear Lake, we had mice around the yard. But I don't remember one ever getting into the house. I just have to wonder why mice will even go near a house with one cat, much less three. And with two outside cats here, you would think that the mice would spread the word to stay away from this place.
One of the neighbors told me that there would be even more mice out here if the hawks and the snakes stopped eating them. Mice... hawks... snakes... coyotes... cougars.... the food chain keeps growing. About the only thing I haven't heard about up here are bears. But I guess it's only a matter of time. After the cougar-sighting by the neighbors, nothing else would surprise me right about now.
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