I watched Ghost Whisperer tonight night and am surprised that I feel a little unsettled afterwards. I really enjoy that show. This one was a little scarier than usual, though! I go into my office about 10:30 and as I sit at the computer, I suddenly hear a movement on the other side of the bookcases. I'm not scared; I'm still "unsettled." After several minutes, I hear it again - a rustling, low, towards the floor. I quietly get up and move towards the aisle between bookcases along the wall and bookcases on the other side of the desk area. I peek around the corner - and there it is, running for cover - a MOUSE! A healthy looking mouse! It runs north towards the window wall under some stuff laying on the floor - a reason to be just a little frustrated with myself for not having the floor completely cleared of "stuff."
I immediately go out to the kitchen to get a piece of red-colored mouse bait I had out there, a leftover piece that had evidently done its work on another mouse. Coming back to the office, I set the mouse bait on the floor near the "stuff" and go back to the computer. A few minutes later, I hear rustling again. I wait a few more minutes, then get up to look. I want to know if the mouse is tempted by the bait. It's not only interested in it, it tried to take the whole piece (about one quarter the size of the mouse!) "home!" The bait is now laying across the top of a black bag containing a video camera and equipment that were donated to the retreat center. I knock the bag over to see if the mouse runs out from it. It doesn't. If it's in there, it's not moving. The red mouse bait falls on the floor, as well as pieces of green mouse bait I'd had in the pantry that fall out of the bag, too! Oh, my!! The mouse has been living there for a while, I guess.
I sit down again at the computer, wondering what I can do, how I am going to get rid of this creature. I not trusting the bait! I'm watching YouTube videos of Taylor Hicks (5th season winner on American Idol whom I'd just discovered for myself the day before) which are keeping my spirits lifted. I hear rustling again, then later again. How can I get rid of this thing TONIGHT I wonder?!?!? If it gets in the bag again, am I quick enough to close the bag and carry it outside? Can I be quick enough AND can I close it tight enough?!?!? I sure don't want the mouse jumping out and running up my arm - which seems a real possibility - the drawstring on the bag doesn't close tight, I'm thinking!
So . . . I hear it moving again and get up to look. I think I see movement. It's SO quick. Im not for sure. It's just barely a flash of gray movement into a box of old ceramic tiles I have in the office on the floor - part of the "stuff." I decide to BELIEVE in myself, to believe that I REALLY saw the mouse jump into that box. The box has a lid on it that's pulled away at one corner - where and how the mouse got into the box. Thinking as quickly as a 59 year old brain can think, I put a flat, suede presentation folder over the offending opening and run to the kitchen for a plastic bag. The quickly-devised plan is to put the box in a plastic bag - and then decide what else to do. At least I will have the critter contained.
This bag idea is not as easy as I think it is. First of all, the trash bag is only big enough to cover one half of the box. Second, the box contains old ceramic tiles which are VERY heavy! I can't get my hands under the box to lift it up and scoot the box into the bag - at least not easily. I AM determined, though! There is a tube of liquid nails laying by the box (I intend to put wooden backs o the ceramic tiles with the liquid nails and then draw on the front side of the tiles). I am able to slip the point of the tube under the box enough to get my hands underneath, lifting the box enough to slide the bag along the underneath side - constantly aware that the mouse could jump out at me!
But the bag is only half as long as I need. Repeating my trip to the kitchen, I grab another trash bag and work to slip it over the other end of the box, using the tube of liquid nails once again. Ah Ha! The mouse is contained - I hope! BUT . . . but . . . .the bags are merely overlapping - there is plenty of space from which the mouse could flee, so back to the kitchen I go to get the masking tape, thinking, "I wish I had duct tape - it's stronger!" I tape the bags together around three of the four sides - I cannot get tape under the box - it is just too heavy.
I step back to admire my makeshift mousetrap. hoping that darn critter is really in there. I am no for sure. OK, so now what? What does one do with a possible mouse caught and sealed in a box of very heavy ceramic tiles??? If I leave the box overnight, hoping the mouse will suffocate inside the trap (yes, I am hoping that the warning on the side of the bag not to let little children play with plastic bags because they could suffocate will WORK just that way with this mouse) I wonder if the mouse can eat itself out of the box and the bag before death-by-plastic bag can happen. There seems to be a lot of air puffing out the sides of my trap.
OK, OK, so now feeling like a murderer hiding her deed-of-death in a rolled up carpet or antique trunk, only my choice of secrecy is a very heavy box of tiles, I drag and push and shove that very heavy box of tiles through the house, down the hallway, through the living room and out to the front door. The threshold at the front door becomes a problem! First, I have to remove the throw rug laying at the door, then I discover that the box cannot be shove over the threshold - there is too much of a "hump" at the door. I am going to have to lift the very heavy box to actually get it out of doors. Oh my . . . oh, my . . . oh, my aching back! I know, though, that I do NOT want to find that the mouse had gotten out in the living room the next morning!
OK, so I lean over and, carefully, using my legs and not just my back, I lift the very heavy box of tiles over the threshold and sit it down immediately on the other side of the open storm door. Hmmm . . . not too smart to let the mouse-I-hope-is-in-the-box out right in front of the open door - it might run back in the house where it is warm! So, I shove and push and heave the box out to the middle of the front porch, so I am able to close the front door, and, also, so I have room to get myself out of the way quick, if/when the hoped-for-mouse hops out.
Next, as I pull off the tape, I start thinking, "I'm going to feel really silly if there's no mouse in here! At least no one's going to see me doing this at midnight on the front porch out here in the bonies!" I pull off the tape and, still not being able to get my hands under the very heavy box, I decide to tip the box over with my knee, allowing the partially opened box top to lay on the floor of the porch, hopefully, an easy get-away for the mouse. As I pull back the plastic, THE MOUSE JUMPS OUT OF THE BAG! Fortunately, it heads for the stairs away from me! In one grand leap it makes it from the box to the top of the stairs and, because it is moving so fast, I'm not for sure about this, but it looks like a "Supermouse" as it bounds from the steps to the ground in one giant leap, totally skipping the steps on its way down.
I do not know how to express the relief I feel! It's I win the battle of the mouse - and the mouse wins, too! WooHoo!
This is the second mouse I've rescued in my years here. The first one I saved from a pail of water sitting outside the back door. That was hard to do. I could have easily walked away and let the mouse drown in the bucket, but not really, I guess. I couldn't get the look in those beady, pleading, little black eyes out of my mind as it mouse-paddled around the pail, trying to get out. I do not want to become known in the Mouse World as The Rescuer! I'll stay out of their world, if they'll stay out of mine!
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