Sunday, October 26, 2008

Enough is enough


Look at this cute, harmless creature. Before yesterday I used to think my mom was a real pansy when it came to mice. I heard her scream countless times when she would encounter a mouse in our storage room growing up. Then my dad would come to the rescue with his BB gun. (No, I am not kidding.)

Fortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of a rodent encounter in my home until yesterday. I came home and I was doing the ritual clearing off of the kitchen table. Mail, Henry's artwork, newspaper, all the stuff that seems to pile up there within a couple of hours. As I picked up one of the papers I saw a mouse scurry across the table. I screamed (a lot) and yelled at Kevin to come upstairs immediately to help me. I was honestly surprised at my reaction because I have a pretty good tolerance for spiders. Snakes are the only thing that I thought I had an irrational fear of. Kevin came upstairs laughing and I told him the mouse had to still be on the table somewhere because I would've seen it jump. Item by item, he continued clearing off the table until there was only one magazine left lying open. As he put his hand on the magazine to pick it up he felt the mouse underneath there. He hatched a quick plan that involved a bowl, but the mouse was too fast. He flew (literally) off the kitchen table and ran into the mess that is our front room. So that was yesterday. Kevin said we could get some traps, but the idea of me being home alone and hearing the thing go off made my skin crawl so I didn't take him up on it.

This morning I was cleaning up the kitchen and needed to get something out of my purse. As I was rummaging around the empty abyss that is my purse, the mouse runs up my arm, out of my bag, and takes a flying leap off of my shoulder. Poor Kevin has a cold and was trying to rest when I let out a blood curdling scream. The mouse high-tailed it into the safety of our front room. I have never before been so close to heart attack. Who expects a mouse to be waiting for them in their purse? I went downstairs to find Kevin in hysterics. Only now, about 6 hours later am I able to find humor in the story.

I immediately called Kevin's mom to see if she had some traps. I was ready for revenge. Lucikily she did and Kevin dragged his sick butt out of bed to set them for me. He still believes in chivalry. Once that mouse invaded my personal space (is there any space more personal for a woman than her purse?) my sympathies were done. I am happy to report that we have rid ourselves of one mouse, but Kevin thinks there is another. Until we find the other one, I am going to cautiously open cabinet doors and my heart rate will continue to rise every time I look in my purse.

Maybe rodents are intelligent enough to play Halloween pranks?

8 comments:

Rich and Kristl said...

I almost let out my own scream when I read that it ran up your arm! Horrible little rodents.
Glad you got rid of one!

The Bayly's said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Bayly's said...

Eew, I seriously got the heebs reading your post! That was way worse than the bee in my mouth, hands down, ick! I completely understand your fear, mice creep me out with their little beady eyes and disease ridden bodies. You're not alone!

Pinky Lovejoy-Coogan said...

Yikes! I was totally scream. I'm glad you were able to catch it. In your purse? Egads!

Amy said...

WE killed about 30 mice (I lost count) in our garage when we first moved into our house in T-town. They ate away at old papers, yearbooks, pooped and urinated on my Halloween costumes, used batting from material to make their nests. I was ticked! I had no mercy. I had traps set up everywhere. It was part of my daily ritual to check the traps and drop them in the trash. They really like Peanut Butter. We think one of them got in our house and died in the bathroom wall. It smelled so bad. We had the KB guy come, he cut open drywall trying to find the source. Eventually the smell went away. Luckily no mouse ever crawled up my arm though. I would have flipped!

Christi said...

Oh man! Good luck with the mice. They must be looking for a warm place to crash. Reminds me of last week when Jim was (finally) doing some landscaping and tearing up the yard...all the bugs came out...and I found a roach crawling on my EYE one night while I was sleeping. EEWWW!

Shannon said...

Oh, I was laughing hysterically reading that. YUCK! I can laugh with you now because we had a mouse in our house in Spanish Fork. I was on the counter watching Kyle chase it with a broom. I also put the formula & bottle upstairs where the bedrooms were because I refused to get up in the middle of the night, go downstairs to the kitchen(where the mouse was) and fix a bottle. I fixed it in the bathroom until the mouse was history. Mice and snakes...ewww!

Shannon said...

Oh, I was laughing hysterically reading that. YUCK! I can laugh with you now because we had a mouse in our house in Spanish Fork. I was on the counter watching Kyle chase it with a broom. I also put the formula & bottle upstairs where the bedrooms were because I refused to get up in the middle of the night, go downstairs to the kitchen(where the mouse was) and fix a bottle. I fixed it in the bathroom until the mouse was history. Mice and snakes...ewww!