HOT PURSUIT

Growing up Mickey Mouse was a big idol of mine. After all, who doesn’t adore the cartoon character created by Walt Disney in 1928?
Besides Mickey, I don’t mind tossing around a phrase here and there: “Quiet as a mouse.” I also remember back on the farm when a few cats would play a game, “Cat and Mouse.” It was fun to watch—in a barn!
Or there have been a few times when I wanted to eavesdrop on someone else and thought, “It would be fun to be a little mouse in the corner.”
But that’s about as far as my love for any sort of mouse goes.
I’m fairly certain you know where this is headed.
I have been fighting the battle of the mouse (or perhaps mice) in the house this winter. Not sure how many, it doesn’t matter. The thing that matters is that I know there is one for sure and most likely where there’s one, there’s more.
Though they’re probably as harmless as can be, I am terrified of the little creatures.
Things had been pretty good for several years. There has maybe been an occasional one outside in the garage or shed, but nothing more.
That’s until this winter. I’m sure I can thank Mother Nature’s artic air for the rouse in my house.
What annoys me the most is that they are in the kitchen, usually in a towel drawer or behind the stove. I ripped everything out and began “baiting” them with Tomcat Mouse Killer. It’s a disposable station that effectively “kills up to 10 mice with one bait block while providing the highest level of station security.”
I won’t resort to mouse traps unless you want to come and take them out of the traps for me.
At this point, I’m not certain I believe bait stations are effective as they have been met with mixed results. Or maybe it’s because there is an army of mice living with me.
I’m smart enough to leave the drawer empty with the station propped in the corner. Within a few days last week, the entire block was gone with remnants, ie: mouse droppings, sprinkled around the drawer.
I quickly replaced the station with another. Same results.
If the bait is supposed to kill them elsewhere, why do I continue seeing signs of mice?
It’s like they’re teasing me.
I can just hear them whispering in the drawers and walls, “nyah, nyah, nyah… can’t catch me!”
By now you’re probably wondering where Ginger (my long-time cat, who actually turns 18 or 88 in human years, this week) is in all of this. Well, let’s just say she’s nowhere near the mice. She’s as disgusted as I am with the thought of dealing with a mouse.
Actually, a few years back she got into a game with one on the dining room floor as she chased it back and forth. By the way, Ginger won the match. However, that’s the last time I’ve seen her have anything to do with a mouse.
I guess this is one battle I’m going to have to fight on my own. I’m not sure who is going to win.
It seems like the mice are in hot pursuit of driving me out of my house or at least a little crazy.