Interesting Mouse Fact: Mice can jump up to 12 inches from the floor onto a flat surface (http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7483.html)

Death toll: 3

We had a clear kill yesterday by trying a suggestion of using peanut butter instead of cheese.  Wham!  Another beastie departs this world.  All three mice we have  caught by trap have been in the pantry.  This seems to be a hub for mice activity.  We set the same trap again with peanut butter but this morning, no mouse. 

When I went to grab Cheerios out of the pantry for breakfast this morning, my dog Buddy ran into the pantry.  He found the trap, snapped it, then proceeded to eat the peanut butter.  I am beginning to think maybe when the cheese was stolen earlier this week, it may have been a 60 pound Australian Shepherd instead of a 4 oz field mouse who braved the trap and escaped unscathed.  I wonder how long Buddy's luck will hold before his tongue or nose meets with a different fate.  Note to self, make sure the pantry door is close tight.

Mouse Salad
Although we have a death toll of 3, there is one more mouse that did enter our battle.  One early morning, about three weeks ago, I was sitting eating breakfast at our table.  Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw movement.  I looked to the right and didn't see anything immediately.  Then out of a dark corner under my cabinets, a little mouse ran right in front of me, paused, looked at me, then continues into a hole under the trash compactor.  I had never noticed this hole and on closer inspection, I saw that the little invaders had nibbled quite an opening in the rubber flap on the bottom of the broken machine.  If you are wondering why we have broken trash compactor, I have no answer other then why waste money on such things?  If it eases your mind, I do still use it as a regular trash can, we just are foregoing the compacting.


Back to the mouse.  This little mouse was interesting to me because he did not seem in any hurry.  In fact, I would venture to say that he sauntered in his mousy fashion along the cabinet.  It is very insulting when the mice become brazen. Now, I have no proof that this is the same mouse but later that night after I had gone to bed, Geoffrey was bagging up the trash for the next day.  He had set the trash bag on the counter near the back wall. All of a sudden, out ran a little mouse.  He encountered a road block where he normally would have had free reign along the counter.  Geoffrey saw his chance to battle this home invasion man to mouse.  He quickly grabbed a salad bowl (a wedding gift I might add so if that guest is reading, I apologize)  and trapped the mouse on the counter.  He then used his free hand to grab a pizza box from the trash.  The salad bowl was then slid on top of the pizza box, little mouse safely inside.  


Needless to say, Geoffrey was feeling very proud of himself.  So proud in fact that he needed to share is accomplishment.  The next moments are vague for me because, as I said, I was already asleep.  What I remember is hearing,"Babe, I caught the mouse!" I sleepily looked up from my pillow and saw Geoffrey standing over me, pizza box/salad bowl/mouse in hand.  "What?" I said. "I caught the mouse!" He said again. His face was boyishly excited.  Unfortunately for him, I simply put my head down and went back to sleep.  


The next morning I couldn't really tell if what I had seen and been told was real or if I had been dreaming.  An understandable confusion when one considers the image Geoffrey presented at my bedside.  So I asked him to verify and yes, all that I thought I had seen had happened. He filled in the remaining details of his capture and the follow up.  Geoffrey had taken the mouse outside into the field and turned him loose.  My one question was, "Did you clean the salad bowl?"  Score one for man to mouse combat.