Mouse Kisses

Sharing Kisses With a Mouse

This was housecleaning day for me.  Not a day that I particularly enjoy...unless the house is extremely in need and I can tell a very marked difference in the before and after picture.  On those occasions it thrills me no end to see the amount of dirt removed from within my domain.   Today I decided it was time to clear the clutter from underneath the kitchen sink and vacuum the dust out.  As I began to remove SOS boxes with just one pad left in each box, one rubber glove with a hole in the little finger, various cleaners and boxes of garbage bags, a flower pot with a whole side missing (now why did I need that?),  I began to notice that there was every possibility that at least one mouse was dwelling somewhere within.  After removing everything I saw that the mouse (mice?) had been busily procuring and storing it's meals while simultaneously decorating it's nest in there. I must say that I have never given much thought before to mouse multi-tasking, but I was quite impressed.   A wonderful color palate lay beneath the sink, way back in one corner..shiny, bright red, green and silver slivers were arranged in a delicate circular pattern.  I thought seriously about taking a picture to send to HGTV for one of their decorating shows.    Hmmm, they looked suspiciously like the wrappers of.... Hershey's Kisses.  Then I remembered that during Christmas I had put a dish of them on the coffee table in the den.   Not a very nice thought....sharing kisses with a mouse (mice?). I thought about brushing my teeth for an hour and gargling with a bottle of gin, but then decided it was much too late for that.  Instead,  I rushed out and bought some mouse traps. I carefully  baited them...one with sharp cheddar cheese, the other with chocolate.  I pushed them back into the now barren corner.  After cleaning everything else and vacuuming out the space I reloaded ONLY the usable supplies and decided that I would sit down with a cup of tea for a moment to enjoy my sense of accomplishment.  I had barely gotten comfortable when I heard it.  At first I didn't recognize it, but after a brief period of intense thought,  I realized it was the trap tripping.  The trap had tripped. :-) . The tripping trap.  OK, Carol, get a grip.  I went back to the sink to check my traps feeling like the proverbial great white hunter in Africa.  There, caught by the hand was a very pregnant, fat, brown field mouse.   I picked up the trap...she had expired; I'm not sure what killed her unless it was fright. I studied her for a moment and saw how close she was to giving birth.  Part of me was wildly ecstatic at my hunting prowess and the thought that I had just come very close to having many mice living in my house entered my mind, but deep down where the "real" me lives, I felt sorrow for her untimely death at my hands. (Not to mention the untimely death of her unborn babies.)  However, it did occur to me that if she was about to give birth, there had to be a husband mouse somewhere near.  Somehow, I overcame my feelings of guilt and put out another trap.  Within hours I had ended the life of her husband as well. I used to have a cat.  Back then I never had this problem.  She evidently  took care of these things.  Then it was a natural thing, this killing.  It's not natural to me.  On a lighter note....The question for debate..... did the mice go after the cheese...or the chocolate?