The war between man and mouse is alive and well in our household and I do believe we are winning. It is now month three in this campaign and I now suspect the mice are taunting me.  I found mouse  droppings on top of the mouse trap today… the part that is supposed to close the trap.   It’s like they are saying “look where I have been, catch me if you can”.  Maybe they are getting nervous as their numbers diminish and are simply resorting to scare tactics.  They have a right to be scared, in May we caught 220 then in June another 68.  This month we have caught 4 bringing the total to 292!  Surely their army is down to just a few front liners…. the best of the best who have made it this far. Well this is my update on the war and I’m confident that by the end of Winter this house will be a mouse free zone.

I couldn’t do it… I just couldn’t sentence the mice in my house to death. When the pest controller rang I told him it was O.K I had the situation under control, I then rang the real estate to notify them that we won’t be needing the pest control after all. The thought of those cute little mice bleeding internally after being poisoned was too much to bare. I have a level of compassion for animals that others find ridiculous. I know other people would bait mice with out a second thought BUT I’m no killer! So now when one of the humane mouse traps snaps shut during the night, instead of saying “ohhh not another one” I’ll be saying “good, another life saved”. Funny how once we shift our perspective problems seem to disappear.

This mouse infestation has me beat.  It has now been two and a half weeks of trapping and the tally stands at 141.  We are getting very little sleep because the traps go off all through the night.  In fact the other night I went and reset a trap and by the time I made it down the hallway and started climbing in bed ANOTHER trap went off.  So back out I went and on and on and on the dance goes.  I really don’t want to hurt the mice but we can’t live like this any longer.  Today I contacted the real estate to explain the situation, now we wait.  If it took them six months to fix my dining room light it is a real possibility that our lease will be over before they address this problem.  I really wanted to win this mouse war but I have accepted the reality of the situation… just like Napoleon… I am defeated.

Let me update you on our mouse problem.  Since trapping began two weeks ago we have caught 37 mice and I expect to catch a few more tonight.  My daughter saw one creep past her door down the hallway and my husband saw one run from the laundry to the lounge room.  My nephew even saw one while he was playing with my girls.  They seem to be everywhere but nowhere!  You spot them out of the corner of your eye but they are so fast that by the time you turn your head they are gone.  I have my mother sleeping over tomorrow and she is petrified of mice,  I sure hope they leave her alone.  The more I think about this house the more I think it was a mistake moving here.  No garage, redback spiders everywhere, our cat was hit and killed by a car, our 11 year old Chihuahua’s not allowed inside and we have mice taking over the house. I’m not going to let the mice win… I vow to win this war… this MIGHTY mouse war of ’08 even if it’s the last thing I do!