Mouse woes

The mouse in my kitchen lives on. In fact, you might even say he reigns over my kitchen at this point. After seeing him the other day - and by seeing him, I mean, catching him out of the corner of my eye as he ran under the couch I was sitting on and I stopped breathing entirely for minutes on end - I went back to the hardware store and bought four more traps because I'm not screwing around anymore. I even got brave and bought fancy snap traps instead of the other "no-see" traps I bought that have FAILED ME TREMENDOUSLY. The hardware store told me that the one type was reusable, you can just rinse it off. HAHAHA. No. Should the trap actually catch it, there will be screaming, crying, possibly sacrificing a set of OXO tongs, a trip to the dumpster and probably a strong drink. Reuse is not an option.

I deployed the new traps, stuffing them with bacon, peanut butter and candy, reloading the old ones. 

And yet, the mouse lives on. 

This has been going on for months now. I'm on my third round of traps. The first, the glue traps, which would probably work wonderfully to catch, also included a warning that mice can escape by PULLING THEIR SKIN OFF and as soon as I read that, I freaked out. But I did not remove them. No, the exterminator said they would work best. The apartment guy said they would work best. I really wanted the mouse gone, so I left them there. For several days I would cautiously open my apartment door and listen to see if I heard any rustling. I would timidly tiptoe into toward the kitchen and slowly peek round the door with one eye closed not sure if I was hoping they'd be empty or... not. I couldn't walk into my kitchen without this routine. 

Then someone told me their story about how they had to devise a way to kill the mouse on their trap so it would be as painless as possible and I freaked out and threw them away. 

A new set of snap traps was deployed near his hidey hole. He used them as peanut butter serving platters. It was also difficult to cook with them on the stove so I moved them to the floor where I activated them with my feet multiple times.

I'm pretty sure the mouse finds this all entertaining. 

I go through periods where I don't see any evidence of him and begin to think he's disappeared for good. And then he reappears and leaves (disgusting) traces of evidence in my cooling frying pan on the stove. Or he eats my kitchen sponge. Or I see him as he boldly runs across the living room. 

I've thought about having a friend's cat over for the weekend, but most of my friends say their cats are more excited about a new play thing and are lousy mouse killers. I seriously cannot comprehend what the point of a cat is if it doesn't kill mice.

I am beginning to reconsider my policy against the glue traps, almost willing to endure the psychological damage. Almost.

I'm pretty sure the mouse is going to live with me forever. I have not named him, I don't want to form those types of attachments. I *might* miss this little chase after he's gone, but I'm willing to risk it. I'm not even all that confident I'm going to win this battle anyway.

** I know they have no-kill traps but that would require interacting with the mouse. Not to mention, I live in an urban area. There are no good locations nearby to release him where he wouldn't be headed into someone's home. 

Comments

[Aly]

Oh, you poor thing - he's a clever little sod! I can't kill mice, I just can't.. but I'm also not scared of them, so it's ok by me. I hope he moves on soon so you can relax!

[Jess]

I read somewhere that you can rent a goat to trim your lawn. I wonder if you can rent a cat that's actually good at catching mice. Because this is getting ridiculous.

[Kristabella]

This is ridiculous! Seems this mouse has been watching old episodes of Tom & Jerry when you're not home!

[Carrisa]

Might I recommend that you just put out poison? You know I am always having mouse woes. I've stabbed them, spatula-d them to death, caught them dead in many a traps... but this here poison I've laid out... well that seems to have worked. Clearly I don't give a rats ass (pun intended!) about being humane to the little suckers. I just want them out of my house. The frog I found in my kitchen over the weekend though can stay. He's cute.

[TUWABVB]

Gosh - I too have been held captive by a mouse - mice really - and I can't remember how they eventually came to their demise, but I can recall the chase. It was horrible. Especially the night one sat in the middle of my living room and I tried to scare him away by throwing the remote at him. It didn't work and I was stuck on the same channel ("Mommie Dearest" if you're curious) all night until my roommate came home. You'll win - trust me - we're higher on the evoluntionary change for a reason.