Heebie Jeebies Warning

***DISCLAIMER***If you are an animal rights activist or a lover of animals, particularly the rodent population, please stop reading now. You have been warned.***End DISCLAIMER***

Many of you know that Mike and I bought my parents house from them when we got married, so technically I have lived in the same house for 20 years. In all of those 20 years, we have never had a mouse problem. I am blaming the unusually cold winter this year as the reason for our ongoing mouse problem this year. There is some space between our dishwasher and our lower cabinet in the kitchen that the little rodents have discovered. We never knew they were keeping warm in there until we started seeing the evidence: mouse poo.

So Mike and I invested in some mouse traps to rid ourselves of what we thought was only one or two mice. We bought the little clampy kind that remind me of a chip bag clip holder, that way it would be a quick death (snap their neck) and we wouldn't have to touch the mouse to release him into the dumpster (I keep saying "we" although I solely mean Mike). We were so excited when we caught our first one, thinking we had conquered what would soon become an ongoing battle. Here the winter will soon be coming to a close in the coming months and I'm not kidding when I say we've now discarded close to 20 mice. Yes, 20!! Dear God, they are reproducing faster than we can get rid of them.

It's become a habit now before I do anything in the lower cabinet to open the door slightly and check to make sure the trap is still in place before bending down to get something out. If I don't see the trap, I know it has released the jaws of death on its prey which has bounced the trap out of its normal spot. (My ongoing fear of finding a rodent down there reminds me a lot of my surprise snake friend in my washing machine two summers ago. I STILL check for a dang snake everytime I open my washing machine lid. For a refresh on THAT story, click here and here.)

So yesterday, we got home from church and I was starting to make lunch. I needed something from the bottom cabinet, so I opened the door and glanced to "the spot" and to my dismay, it was gone. It was now mouse-filled in the front of the cabinet instead of on the side. Had I been a cursing person, I'm sure explicit profanties would have spilled out of my mouth at that moment. But I quickly slammed the door and managed to squeal "Oh DEAR GOD!" as I ran and jumped up on the couch. Mike, who was in the other room hollered, "Another mouse?" I answered back giddy, "YES!" He paused for only a moment and then hollered back, "You're standing on the couch, aren't you?" Realizing my childish actions, I lowered myself down on the couch and retaliated, "No...."

He came into the kitchen and opened the door for about 10 seconds, slammed the door and quickly squealed "Ohhh nuh uh!!" The.Mouse.Was.Still.Alive....in the trap. Pretty sure I threw up a little in my mouth. I spent 10 minutes psyching him up, to get the mouse out of the cabinet and discard him in the dumpster outside. I made him put on rubber gloves. Then, like a scaredy-cat, I buried my face in the pillow on the couch and plugged up my ears so I didn't have to hear the mouse moving in the Wal-Mart bag Mike put him in. He came back in and we talked about how that was the grossest thing he's done in a while, and how he actually felt bad knowing the mouse had not died as instantly as we originally hoped.

As if THAT wasn't bad enough, I got up this morning, ate my breakfast, and just because I wanted satisfaction that we had finally killed them all, I opened up the cabinet, and what do you know...there was another one dead in the trap.

I want to move.