Wednesday, November 25, 2009

We have another 4-legged animal

I would love to adopt a second rescue dog. There are so many dogs in need of homes, and we have the room to have them. But Wade is happy with one dog.

So I was surprised when Wade told me right before bed, "We have another four legged animal in the house".

I knew he didn't just go out and pick up a dog. "A mouse?" I asked. "Yep."

Wade tried to kill it with his hockey stick. He almost got it, he told me, but he just missed when he brought the stick down. He told me that if he was closer, he'd have gone after it with his hands. Apparently, at a friend's house, he caught a mouse with his bare hands. (I did not ask what he did with the mouse.)

That freaked me out. Wade got a lecture on diseases: rabies and hantavirus. I told him not to TOUCH a wild mouse again.

We were both surprised by the mouse. There are no "signs" of a mouse living in our house (well, the unfinished area of our basement). There's no torn up tissue, no chewings, no mouse droppings.) Hopefully, that means the mouse hasn't been here long. I don't care about the mouse per se, but rather about the droppings it leaves (because that's unsanitary, gross and disease-causing). Wade's getting mouse traps on the way home. I don't want to kill the mouse - I mean, he just found a warm spot to winter (kinda like snowbirds). But what other option do we have? If we catch and release, he might find his way back to our house.

Do you have experiences with mice, vermin, or other uninvited guests?

6 comments:

  1. Eeek!
    Well, I haven't had the issue in my house, but we have at work. They get in and have gotten to the candy that is left out at the front desk. They put out traps, and I try not to look at the traps or think about it. I mean, on one hand I know mice are rodents and are not capable of the feeling or thought that we sometimes ascribe to them. But on the other hand... can you remember Fievel???
    At home, we have some field mice holed up in a wood pile in our back yard. The dogs like to go and bark at them every single night. And I've seen one or two in the trees and along the fence - those suckers are big! But I'll leave them alone as long as they stay out of my house. I think that if they did migrate inside, I'd have to trap them. Can't have any more pets - we're full! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. One time, we were at friends', chatting away in their basement den. At one moment, completely unexpected, a poor baby squirrel just landed a few feet from us with a loud thump. It was terrified, and so were we; both the lady of the house and I were heavily pregnant, and we just started shrieking in horror! It took two guys wearing work gloves and a ten minute chase to put it back outside. We never knew how it made its way inside or what it was doing there alone in the middle of winter...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rachel: I can't say for certain mice don't have feelings. I mean, it's unlikely, but I don't know for certain. Because, of course, I remember Fievel! :)

    Marie-Eve: Oh, poor baby squirrel! It must have been so frightened!

    ReplyDelete
  4. OH dear. You are handling it very well....I would have freaked out big time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You could borrow one of our cats, they're a bit too good at catching mice.... :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had mice in an old apartment that I was living in many years ago. Totally freaked me out and I couldn't sleep. It was actually the tipping point that made me finally move out of that place. Good luck! Hope that's the last you see of any!!!

    ReplyDelete