Wednesday, May 18, 2011

How Embarrassing!


I don’t think MTL believed me when I said I had seen a mouse in the kitchen, and I began to wonder if I had imagined it. However I discussed it with my help and she suggested a humane mouse trap. Her cat had brought a mouse indoors and it was under the sofa for a couple of days.


I looked up Amazon and found one highly recommended. It was two traps for just over £10. They arrived yesterday – not very well packed and a small piece of plastic had broken off but it still seemed workable. It appeared the preferred bait was peanut butter or chocolate.


At times like this I have to admit to differentiating between ‘men’s work’ and ‘women’s work’. In my book anything to do with something which elicits screams from me is clearly the former. MTL put one by the side of the Aga and one near the waste bin, both laced with plain, dark chocolate containing 97% Coop Fair Trade ingredients.


This morning we had to be up early to make the bed and open the French windows to air the room for the Ariel man arriving at 8 am to fix my mother’s old TV in our bedroom. MTL waylaid him and got him to look at our newish one downstairs which plays up a bit. Apparently someone – probably me as I tend to press everything when it goes wrong- had put it on analogue. The solution, which I am gifting to you, is to move P upwards and all is well.


The upstairs one was more complicated. He changed a fuse in the plug and discovered the manual switch wasn’t working. Solution: keep it on stand by and use the switch on the wall. Naturally – being greenish I shan’t leave it on standby. Just before our engineer arrived MTL told me there was now a mouse in the trap by the Aga. My plan was for MTL to transport it to the woods and liberate it but there was no time before the engineer arrived.


We all ended up in the kitchen drinking tea whilst the engineer chatted about walking and camping and what a lovely house this was. Suddenly I became aware of a rattling sound every time there was a pause in the conversation and realised the mouse was making his presence felt – probably had finished the chocolate. I was mortified and escaped to fiddle with the washing machine, or water the tubs anything rather than admit that rattling sound was a mouse we had just caught. After all it’s not the sort of thing you want to spread abroad.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you had a successful safari. Query, are you mounting it for the fireplace?

Cheers.

Ponita in Real Life said...

I won't tell you how I put on leather gloves and just catch the mice... That would probably elicit another scream. ;-)

Just remember the poor mouse is infinitely more terrified of you than you are of it!

savannah said...

too funny! just about an hour ago, we heard a very, very, very strange sound that seemed to come from the top of our house. i could not even move, so of course the MITM immediately went outside, looked around, then came in and went up into the attic to do the same. couldn't find a thing, but i swear, if he hadn't been home, i don't know what i would have done! (i can't believe what a scaredy cat i've become.) xoxox

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I'm GLAD you've caught it. I hate mice, rats, roaches, snakes [especially poisonous ones] and flies. And it's a MAN'S job to get rid of them, yep, yep, no argument there!

Ahem...couldn't you have...ahem...laced the chocolate with sleeping tablets to put that mouse's light out forever? hehe.

Pat said...

Randall: Goliath - as MTL has named him - is now roaming the wilder part of the hill wondering how he can get back to the chocolate factory.

Ponita: I always knew you had the courage of a Queen of England and knowing it is frightened of me doesn't really help my instinctive terror. BTW what does your cat think he's playing at? Maybe he's a scaredy cat too.

Savannah: thank goodness he was there. I should send him up to the attic a few more times just to make sure.

GG: to be honest I think that is an excellent idea because the liberating is a bit of a nuisance.

Unknown said...

It's a house mouse, not designed to live in the woods. It's either dead, or back in your house!

Pat said...

John.g: MTL says it was a field mouse but what does he know? We did our best to be humane.

Jimmy said...

There's nothing like a good blether doll, especially while you discreetly murder Maw, Paw and the Weans.

Unknown said...

If it had a short tail, MTL is right.

angryparsnip said...

Well, I am glad the story sped over here because it is rather a fun one !
You need a Scottie to catch the mice. Where I live all kinds of little critters are always trying to get in my home and I am always trying to keep them out ! Hamish found the last place the mice were trying to get in and he was guarding the spot every night till the handyman came in and fix the hole.
Good Dog Hamish...

cheers, parsnip

The Unbearable Banishment said...

It's just a little mouse, for cryin' out loud. Certainly nothing to be embarrassed about. A house that has never had a mouse in it lacks character, if you ask me. I had all kids of vermin on and off in my apartments in New York. It was like wild kingdom.

Pat said...

Jimmy: oh dear - all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little haund.

John.g: I'll wake him up and ask him:)

Parsnip: good for Hamish. Cats on the other hand don't seem too clever with mice in the house although ever ready to bring them in as a gift.

UB: it's almost a rite of passage, if you are a writer, to have had rats in one's New York apartment. And then there are the roaches. Oh I wish I hadn't thought of them.

mapstew said...

Now I've got that song in me heid!

'There's a moose loose aboot this hoose'! :¬)

xxx

Pat said...

Mapstew: and who said 'I hate meeces to pieces'?

Ponita in Real Life said...

Pat, me catching them with my hands was when I lived on a farm. I've never seen a mouse in any house I've lived in, but then I've always had cats about. I'm sure they did their job. ;-)

I've also stomped on them when need be... although I am sure you don't want to know just how squishy a little mouse can be!!

Pat said...

Ponita:I once saw my first husband take a flying leap onto a mouse in our apartment. I didn't hang around to see the result but it was fatal.
Apologies to your pussy cat.

AndrewM said...

I think it was Jinx the cat who hated those meeces to peeces.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixie_%26_Dixie_and_Mr._Jinks

Pat said...

Andrew.M: thank you. I followed the link, hoping to find a yutmincbiaube of the cartoon but no luck:(

Z said...

I've caught mice by hand and let them go, outside. But when we set traps, I'm afraid they aren't humane ones. We can never make this old house completely mouse-proof!

Granny Annie said...

There is no sympathy for mice around here. That is why we keep cats:)

lom said...

Our cat used to bring in live mice, I used to catch them by the tail and put them back out side.

Pat said...

Andrew.M: I was stone cold sober when I wrote this:
'yutmincbiaube'
What can it mean?

Z: that's a comfort if you have seen one too. I'm guessing you're braver than me.

Granny Annie:I'm going to toughen up but my help is an old softie:)

LOM; they were presents just to show you how much she loved you:)

kenju said...

Oh, I bet it is something he has done before too. Glad you caught him.

sablonneuse said...

Like Helen, I have to catch the mice the cats bring in - if they're still alive - and put them outside.
I remember one occasion when three cats were watching a tiny mouse they had cornered but not one of them attempted to catch it. That was left to me! Like Helen, I grab them by the tail. Problem is, the feisty ones can turn themselves upwards and bite!

Pat said...

Judy: I just hope he hasn't got a homing instinct.

Sandy: who would have believed it?

OldLady Of The Hills said...

LOL, LOL.....Ahhhh yes! The "Mouse Caper"....
Many many years ago when I had three cats--I used to let them go out into the garage to explore and do whatever...."Sugar" brought a Mouse into the House---and he was so proud! He kept playing with it and batting it around...I tried to get it away from him, feeling very sorry for the dead or dying mouse. Finally I got it away from him and carred it outside where it promptly came out of it's pretend death-throws and scampered away. He had been playing dead. Smart Mouse.
There were no more trips into the garage for my cats after that! (lol) Good luck with getting rid of any other little cratures, my dear.

BTW: a new post is up now. I hope you don't mind my telling you this way since I am not on any Google Reader thingy or whatever......

Pat said...

Naomi: I'm always grateful for you letting me know about a new post and I'll be over before the day is out.
I'm really hoping there won't be any other little creatures. So far so good;)

rashbre said...

I couldn't help laughing when I read this. Great tail!

Pat said...

Rashbre: har har har!

Kim Ayres said...

Here's a blog post about our own run-in with a mouse in the house.

Afterwards we ended up buying these things you can plug into the mains which emit a super high pitched wail that is beyond human hearing. Apparently it is intensely irritating to rodents, so they get fed up and leave. However, it is no good if you have any pets in the house because it will drive them insane too

Pat said...

Kim: thank you. That sounds like a good preventative measure.

Kath said...

Haha,love this post - and its tag!

Pat said...

Kath: the day may come when I can laugh about it:)