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November 20, 2005
Oliver 2, Fantastic Mr Mouse 0
Our original mouse, a tiny black yoke, was found dead on the stairs a couple of weeks after we stopped putting food waste into bins that hadn’t lids on them. I don’t know why he refused the tasty M&M & pistachio bait I’d left in the humane trap for him - okay, I’m not gone on M&Ms myself, but I’d choose eating them over death. RIP little buddy! Of course, I’m only calling you that now you’re not running around my attic at night.
Maybe it’s the chilly winter nights or something, but we had another mouse find it’s way in over the last few weeks. I don’t think it was part of the same family, being much bigger and a completely different colour, but I’m not exactly an expert on mouse genealogy either. He was a lot less circumspect than the first mouse, leaping gaily out of our cutlery drawer every so often, and treating the attic conversion like his own personal playroom. A cousin of ours was sleeping in there on Friday night - or trying to, at least. She was woken up by the mouse skittering about the desk. She turned on the light, and spent the next hour watching the mouse throwing itself merrily at the wall trying to climb up a door jamb. And then she fled downstairs to sleep on the couch.
But there’s a happy ending for all concerned! Yesterday when I went up to the attic I heard Mouse #2 rustling around one of the bins in the attic. I grabbed a spare pair of plastic bags and sealed off the top of the bin, then myself and my two cousins (we’re an Irish family) listened breathlessly for five minutes trying to reassure the mouse that we were gone and ourselves that he’d actually been trapped in the bin. He had!
Then, we dithered. What to do? Somehow flip the bin upside-down, catching the mouse in the bag, then smushing it to death? Not quite in keeping with my touchy-feely side, but then I wasn’t the one it had kept awake all night. We started by carrying the bin outside to the back garden - but that wasn’t far enough to set it free, it’d just saunter back into the house thanking us for carrying it downstairs. Bloody sarky mouse.
Eventually we persuaded one of my cousins to drive us to the local park. The mouse was desperately trying to convince us he wasn’t there by staying absolutely still, which was good, as balancing a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica (bought by my parents, looked at about twice a year) over the mouth of the bin while balancing the bin in the other hand isn’t the easiest thing to do in a car driven by a girl reduced to panicky giggles by us cracking jokes about setting the mouse free in her car.
Hmmm. The driver probably not the best person to joke to about mice running up trouser legs, in retrospect.
We made it as far as the park, and I carefully unpacked the bin, emptying the bits of crap into another plastic bag I brought with me. I’m making a point of recording that, as apparently going through a bin you bring with you to a park is enough to get the neighbourhood curtains twitching. WE CAN SEE YOU WATCHING US YOU KNOW. Anyway, about half-way through the bin I realised the mouse was actually between the bin and the bin lining, so I took that out entirely. There was a moment of actual relief when I saw the mouse and so hadn’t been leading my cousins on an absurd adventure for nothing. Then he leapt out and scurried off through the grass. Free! And not killed by back-breaking traps or poison! Ha! (Sorry, I’ve been getting lots of free advice).
He wasn’t waiting at the door to be let back into the house on our return, either. Whew. You never know with these buggers. The only question now is was it a family of mice, or not? I’ll keep you informed.
Posted by Oliver at 01:20 PM | Comments (4)
November 08, 2005
Look, mum! Hair!
I’m told I don’t actually look like this. At least, not more than once a year.
I’ve been playing about with my weblog like a fool, and it didn’t work for a bit. It seems okay now, but if you’ve any problems please email to let me know!
Posted by Oliver at 04:37 PM | Comments (3)