Friday, May 11, 2012

The Terror of the Mouses

Sundance and Cassidy are doing their usual bang-up job of keeping the house free of mice -- NOT!

In the last few days, two mice have found themselves into the sticky traps. Last night a small mouse ran around the living room while we were watching television. It ran behind the entertainment center, and I got out the sticky traps and placed them around. The mouse ran back out and I rearranged the traps and added more to corners. The mouse ran into my bedroom, and I put peppermint-soaked cotton balls all over the place to get it out. It ran into the living room and trotted across two sticky traps, apparently too light to get stuck, and hid behind the entertainment center.

Suddenly I heard a thump from Tom's office. Cassidy had decided to investigate what was making all the ruckus. She stalked the mouse for a while, chasing it to various places and then sitting and staring. I think she was doing that thing Sheldon Cooper does where he stares hard and tries to make your brain explode. This worked no better for Cassidy than it does for Dr. Copper.

Eventually she chased the little round rodent back into my room, where it promptly climbed a cord and ran across the pillows. (Not a sight to make one happy to lie down one's head to rest, I assure you.)

I chased the mouse off the bed, followed by all the bedding to make sure it wasn't hiding somewhere. Then Cassidy and I went hunting it and found it near the front door. After Cassidy stalked it from a safe distance away for a while, I opened the door and chased the mouse out. Tom was on the porch making a phone call and making fun of the whole process. Cassidy took off after Mickey/Minnie, but I don't think she had any success. She was back in the house shortly looking decidedly unvictorious.

Below is a picture of Sundance on my bed this morning. She is protecting it from further violation by snoring loudly. This is her way of keeping the mice at bay. Works as well as staring at them.

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