Of Mice and Woman

This blog title has been generously donated by my fabulous boyfriend, who has joked about making a book of this tragic tail (pun intended). This post is also dedicated to him for putting up with my frantic play by play phone calls every night (they go something like this: Me: WHAT THE F..There’s another mouse! It’s crawling up my window towards the ceiling. What is it doing up there?! Why?! Why wont they just leave me alone?!… It just jumped on the floor!!! And now I can hear it behind my bed..” Trent: …..patiently waits for me to be done..which is never…)

And so begins the story Of Mice and Woman

It all started innocently enough. One mouse, or so I thought, occasionally popped it’s head up behind my suitcase propped up next to the wall. Oh, hello, little mousey, you startled me, I thought. But you must be more scared of me than I am of you, that’s what my mom always told me, so I will be a brave Peace Corps Volunteer and let you stay just as long as you don’t come any closer and don’t ever think about coming on my bed, ever, ok?!

I really thought this mouse understood me. And that was my first mistake. My second mistake was thinking this whole time there was only one. In my defense, they only showed themselves one at a time! But still, I know, really not the sharpest crayon in the box on that one.

So this went on for a good long while. Occasional mouse sitings, even staring contests (I should have seen this as a warning that it/they were getting braver) continued until it was summer vacation and I left my site for a good long while. When I returned, I still was not shaken by the mouse’s presence. It had almost become a familiar routine, a sign of being home, if you will. But then the fateful day came, while readjusting my pillows, I noticed mouse poop on my sheets.

MOUSEY, I TOLD YOU, DUDE, MY BED EQUALS GAME OVER. But in quick return, as if to say, F U Emily, we never shook hands on that deal, I saw a mouse jump on my bed WHILE I WAS ON IT. This would be the first of many sleepless nights. I told my host family about it the next day, to which they basically gave me the look, I don’t care, you’re a grown up, deal with it. Ok, ok, I get it, yes I will handle it, but can you tell me, say, where to buy the traps, or what kind to buy? To which they gave me an answer, but again with a look that said, I’d rather not tell you but I guess I have to.

After school, I bought two sticky traps (that could be cut up into four), and headed home on a mission. By this point, I expected to maybe catch two, since the sitings became more frequent, and though still only one at a time, I’d see it in two different places within a very short period of time. I caught two on the same trap, almost immediately. But then I saw a third trying to avoid the trap, seeing it’s friends helplessly stuck there.

In order to dispose of the trap, you have to fold it up while the mice are still squeaking and trying to break free. As someone that does not want to be near mice, this was a very difficult task for me. I’d have to psych myself up for at least twenty minutes before I could finally get the courage to fold it up and stick it in a plastic bag. I’d then have to run outside in the dark and in the rain to the outdoor trash can before coming back to my room to face more. I caught two more on the second trap, and by this time it was already very late at night. So late, that I had started to drift off to sleep but then the loud squeaking of a newly stuck mouse woke me up. I decided if I was going to get any sleep, I’d have to wait to put out the next trap and risk mice crawling on me as the alternative.

I started evaluating places where I thought they were coming in, and tried to think of ways to block them. One place was definitely by my suitcase, which was where I was catching them. But the hole isn’t visible because there’s a gap between the entire wall and the floor. The wall is solid, but of course somewhere there’s a hole, and because of the overlap I couldn’t see where. I also noticed they would crawl up my window up towards the top of the curtains. Upon further investigation, I noticed that one of the ceiling tiles had a rather large gap across the entire thing. I asked for help from my host family, but it was initially answered with blank stares. I put out another trap. Caught another mouse. I didn’t leave it out long enough to see if another one would get stuck on the same trap. I was too spooked already. But after that I was out of traps. I shoved a towel between the wall and the floor and jammed my suitcase against it. This has worked temporarily, since I saw a mouse try to get back out that way, but got confused and then went up the window towards the ceiling.

This situation went very quickly from Emily not caring about a mouse in her room, to full out Emily freak out mode due to a mouse invasion. Losing sleep was also not helping my sanity. The other night, I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room, to which I think my host family realized, alright she’s lost it, I guess we should help. The next day, my host dad put up a wooden board to cover the gap in the ceiling tile. I bought more traps to try and get any stragglers that might have been lurking who knows where. I had such high hopes of a mouse free night, but when night came, another appeared. This one was smart enough to avoid the traps! It crawled up towards the ceiling, noticed it couldn’t get out and started gnawing on the corners of the wood. It wasn’t working right away, so naturally, it jumped on my bed again. To which I decided I would be sleeping on the couch again.

I still do not know if the mouse got out or not, but it did some damage on the wood. I attempted to patch up these new holes, and readjusted the traps in such a way to hopefully trick this mouse or any others that may still be around. Again, I have hope, but it is dwindling. I’ve become delusional; any sound or movement in my peripheral vision makes me jump a mile high. Come night time, I’m an anxious wreck, constantly on the look out with no real plan of action. If this were war, the mice would be winning by psychological warfare. I know, I know, they’re just mice but I can handle bugs no problem for the most part, so I have some strengths! If there is no improvement in the next day or two, my next plan is to put poison out. But I sure do hope this story is over soon. For Trent’s sake and for mine!