Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Friday, August 23, 2013

Raining Mice


Okay, he only looks cute . . .
We lived in the country.
Far out in the country.
We had many people living in our house.
But we weren't the only residents.
Maybe I should describe our other (for lack of a better term) tenants.
They were warm.
Breathing.
And regularly produced offspring.
They routinely got into our food storage.
And created their own comfortable little hideaways. 
Mostly in our walls and dressers.
And they never, ever paid rent.
Oh, and two important points:
1. They were covered with hair.
2. They had tails.
You're right.
We had mice.
Did you know that mice like to nest in clean baby clothes, rendering them un-wearable?
That they climb anywhere?
And can squeeze through really, really tiny holes?
So that it is nearly impossible to bar them from your home.
And they like everything we like.
Especially things that come in a cloth or cardboard package.
And some plastic.
Their standards are not high.In fact, they have even been known to burrow into boxes of Kraft dinner or bags of Ramen noodles, which we all know have no nutritional value whatsoever.
We learned to deal with them.
Trap them when we could.
Even poison some when we were truly desperate.
But still they kept coming.
We found 'mice tracks' in our clean bedding. On the shelves. On top of the TV. Even on the kitchen counters.
It was a nightmare.
One I think could easily be turned into a horror movie. Hmmm. Attack of the Mice? Or: The Teeth That Could Chew Through Anything? How about: The Really Annoying Things in the Walls?
Okay, I'm out. What are your suggestions?
Moving on . . .
My Husby and I were in bed, drifting at the edges of sleep.
Well, I was, he was reading a magazine.
Suddenly, he spotted movement.
I should explain here, that our temporary bedroom was in the basement and our bed was shoved into the corner formed by the meeting of two cinder-block walls.
Mice can climb cinder block walls.
And I was the person sleeping next to the wall.
Enough exposition.
My husband turned his head sharply and the mouse climbing up the corner, inches from my head, immediately dove for cover.
My husband narrowed his eyes, rolled the magazine he had been reading, and waited.
Okay I will admit that I'm only imagining the narrowed eyes.
But this is my story. I'll tell it how I want . . .
Soon, his patience was rewarded.
Our intrepid little explorer (See how refined I am? I could have called him *&^%$#@!!!) started, once more, upwards.
This time, Grant waited until the mouse was high enough on the wall that it couldn't possibly get back. Then he attacked.
SWAT! 
With the rolled-up magazine.
He got it!
The stunned mouse fell.
Right onto my chest.
The edges of sleep vanished as I gasped and sat up. Whereupon (good word) it fell with a plop into my lap.
Grant scooped it up, quickly dispatched it, and then turned the most apologetic face to me that I have ever seen.
And all I could do was laugh.
What else can you do when it starts raining mice?
Indoors.
P.S. We did solve our mouse problem. We moved.

18 comments:

  1. So it wasn't raining men...it was raining mice?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah. Dang. I probably don't have to tell you which I would have preferred!

      Delete
  2. *GASP!* I think I stopped breathing when I read the part where it fell on your chest! I truly have a phobia of any rat-like animal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. At least the mouse didn't lick the wax out of your ear...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Here in this house I left my room when a mouse climbed up the new grass cloth wall paper. My mother set a trap and caught it before bedtime. I don't do mice well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1. sticky traps 2. a cat 3. seal up nooks and crannies under sinks- near plumbing 4. put all food source in Kerr jars
    Hopefully they will find another place for the winter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep. Pretty much tried all of those. Including the finding a other place for the winter. Except that it was US finding another place! :)

      Delete
  6. lol
    Poor little guy.
    We caught mice and I would put them into jars so they could not climb out but they died from the stress of it all.Then when a rat got into my chin cage and ate it,
    I have to say I am no fan of these rodents at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alberta is the only place on earth that is completely rat free. That reason alone would keep me here!!!

      Delete
  7. A couple of months ago we had a mouse in our modern, supposedly well-sealed house. One of our cats caught it and I picked up the cat, mouse dangling from mouth (her mouth, not mine), and ... didn't quite make it out the door. Mouse crawled under the edge of the flooring, I picked him out with gardening gloves and plopped him in a plastic container and let him go. The cat was kind of mad, but forgave me eventually.

    All that to say - as long as I can SEE the mouse I'm fine.

    But if it were to land ON me, I'd be screaming and running in circles ... so I really admire your restraint in merely sitting up!

    I see your label, there! Not enough $%&*'s :O)

    ReplyDelete
  8. How about "Things that go Nibble in the night!"

    Love,
    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh God, I would have FREAKED. That you laughed is testament that you're better and wiser and braver than I. Shudder!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I solved my one mouse problem by finding where he got in and stuffed the hole firmly with steel wool because they can't chew through it. All the while hoping the mouse had already gone out for the day. I never saw him again, so I guess he was outside.

    ReplyDelete

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