The Mouse

I have been living in fear for about a month now.  We had a little mouse living in a pile of wood by our garage - and with the weather being so warm - our back door has been open almost every day while the kids run in and out.

At some point the mouse found its way in.

This is not your typical mouse that comes out at night, hides in dark places, sneaks around and avoids humans.  Oh, no.  This mouse was RUTHLESS.  He was living somewhere in our kitchen, and would come running at me while I was making dinner or doing the dishes.  Then, every night around 9:00, he would just run amuck in our kitchen - dodging all NINE traps we had set for him.

I was terrified to go in my kitchen, and from time to time he would even come running into the family room when I was watching TV.

About three days ago I hit a breaking point.  I was doing my dishes and cooking while standing on a stool  (that'll really hurt your back), I was spending hours sitting on my kitchen table just WAITING for him to come out - only to have him come out minutes after I had given up, I even set up a video camera so I could figure out where this mouse was coming from, and how he was getting around all of the traps in our home.  Yes, pathetic, but it had become an obsession.  I wanted this mouse DEAD.  I actually wanted it alive, so I could watch it die while feeding it to our neighbor's hawk.  Pathetic AND cold hearted....I know.

Last night all of the mouse drama came to a head.  I headed back to my bedroom to get my video camera and wait for the mouse, but when I came back he was already out.  I watched him dart under the refrigerator - so I called Rob in for backup.

We decided that we needed to scare him into one of the sticky floor traps by getting him out from under the fridge.  It worked.  Rob stuck a fly swatter under one side of the fridge and the mouse came flying out in the right direction.  It saw the trap, tried to stop, but was already going so fast on the tile that he basically slid into the trap.  I was SO EXCITED....for about a second.  Then the mouse was squeaking and crying and totally stuck.

Suddenly my worst enemy looked like this in my mind:

This cold-hearted snake was broken hearted at the thought of anything happening to Gus Gus.  All I needed to do was give him little booties, a hat, and a too-small shirt, and he would probably be my new best friend. 

(Right now my mom is thinking, "Told you so!")

We knew we couldn't just release the mouse without finding him right back inside tomorrow, so we did what had to be done. SO SAD.

Well, apparently we slaughtered the world's purest mouse because today the universe has completely turned on us - seeking to destroy our lives the way we destroyed his.   Rob called this morning letting me know that his car (which we have been expecting to finally die) died on his way to work.  Great.  But that wasn't enough.  The universe also decided to kill my car while it was at it.  Two cars destroyed in one day.  All thanks to you, Gus Gus.  Why on earth did you have to be so darn cute once we caught you?!