We Have A Mouse

Yesterday, Leo called me downstairs and asked me to bring one of the cats. Mystified, I picked up our cat, Scooter, and went to investigate. Leo was standing, immobile, in the doorway to our kitchen.

"Put Scooter down right here," he said, "There's a mouse."

I peeked around the corner and there, sitting upright on the floor next to our cat food bowl, was the cutest little fat brown mouse I've ever seen. Without thinking, I put Scooter down. He didn't see the mouse right away, but we nudged him in until he took notice. Unfortunately, Scooter's years indoors have apparently led him to forget his feral ways, so he really didn't know what to do with the mouse, who escaped unharmed, running behind the stove (and ostensibly, into the subfloor or the basement).

After I had a chance to ponder the situation (and how adorable the mouse was), I told Leo we needed to go to the store for a trap. We left Scooter to monitor the situation and went to the hardware store, where we found an entire wall of aggressive-looking pest control products, most of which said, "Kills Mice! Guaranteed!" After searching through the murderous lot, we finally found one kind of humane trap (similar to the one pictured at left), and as it was our only option, we bought three, brought them home, baited them with peanut butter, and settled in to wait.

So far, there's been no action in the traps. I don't know if the mouse got what he came for and decided not to return or if he's just not a fan of peanut butter. Either way, we haven't seen any movement whatsoever...but I'm hopeful.

In the meantime, I've apparently impressed Leo with my non-squealing reaction to the mouse. Of course, the mouse was stationary and wasn't running around, but still...I'm pretty brave when dealing with 4-legged creatures. Any more than that and I really don't react too well.