Of Mice and Men

So a couple of weeks ago we had a mouse problem. Now, we usually get one or two when the weather gets cold every Fall - but they're usually caught quickly and it's over with.

Not so this year.

We had two mice, who were particularly comfortable living with us. They learned to 'glide' right over our glueboards. They avoided being seen for a few days - but eventually got a bit arrogant - even daring to saunter out right in front of us in the open - knowing we were too slow to catch them. Evidence was obvious that they had visited every room in our house.

Now for all the previous cute little furry mice who had innocently & mistakenly made their way into our home, we'd felt a slight big of disgust, and a slight bit of pity.
These two made us all mad. When mice begin to taunt humans ... it brings out a different side to us. Even the kids, who are usually unaware of our mice trappings - began to be more aware. (Especially because each one had taken their own turn at getting stuck on the annoying glue boards that seems to be placed more abundantly around the house. )

We eventually won and caught them both. No one felt pity. In fact - we all four celebrated when the last "snap" was heard. (Glue boards were old hat by that point.)

I hadn't realized how much this recent ordeal affected our kid's feelings about mice until Eli's teacher sent me this note about an assignment he had been given today:

Heather,

Eli wrote a story today while I was in a meeting. :-) It made me laugh! :-)

He was told a mouse is living in your desk at school at night. Please write the mouse a letter. Maybe I should of let him paint today. :-)

Mouse,

We are sorry. We hate cheese so we don't have any. A friend hates mice, so he put mouse traps in my desk and all around. Inside our cat eats mice. Our house smells bad. The desk is poison. The desk is made to kill mice. The desk is messy. I hate mice. I kill mice. Get out now or else!

Now, I don't think he's scarred for life, but....