It's Personal...

11:30 pm

Clang, Clang, Clang.

Silence

Clang, Clang, Bang!

"Did you put the kids to bed?"
"Yup."
"Are you sure they went?"
"Yup"
"Ohhhhh... I know what that is."

And as the kitchen light clicked on, all the noise stopped.

It had been three days since I baited behind the kitchen trash to catch some critters.  I have been slowly cleaning out every nook in the house, and when I cleaned under the kitchen sink, where we keep the trash, I found... evidence.  And while I will not bait the garage or a shed, it is just not acceptable for us to share our living space with a mouse.

Our home is 75 years old.  Despite my best efforts, it's nearly impossible to seal every crack and crevice, no matter how many cans of spray foam I have purchased.  Having the cat would be a huge advantage in the war against wildlife, if he actually did anything. In fact, as the two of us tried to figure out what to do with our new found house guest, he laid sound asleep like a ten pound anchor on the foot of the bed.

That was Friday night.  On Saturday, after work, I came home and cleaned the basement. Our basement measures about 6'4" at it's highest, which means that at 6'2", my husband would be of little long term help.  I started in the laundry room, moving the washer, vacuuming cobwebs, sorting through items to donate, searching for anywhere there could be a nest.  I took down walls.  Removed insulation.  Destroyed panel board. Reworked wiring.

Nothing.

I moved onto Tony's section.  The section that houses approximately 70,000 baseball cards... in boxes... in stacks... in books.  I moved every box.  Inspected them all for damage.  Chew marks.  extra evidence. It is a haven for mouse nesting material.  Yet, nothing.

In fact, I found zero evidence of mice anywhere in the basement.  Every trap we had strategically placed out of reach from the cat was empty. At one point Tony came down to find out why he had heard the power tools.

"Was that wall structural?"
"I hope not.  It came down in 3 kicks."
"I don't think I like it.  We almost have too much room now."
"You can not fill it with more crap."

Six hours later, the basement was sparkly clean.  The trash bags and demo debris was thrown on the back lawn for disposal on Sunday.  Donations were bagged and boxed for drop off.  I felt a bit better thinking that maybe, just maybe, the nest was not inside the house.  We went to bed, traps set, and were woken again at 430 Monday morning.

*sigh*

Exhausted, Tony opted to wait until 530 when he would be getting up for work.  The clanging had subsided, so we figured he had given up on the struggle.  When the time came to retrieve the trap, we were in for a surprise.

The mastermind had propped the trap between the copper pipes and pried himself off, leaving nothing but a tuft of fur and a piece of popcorn.

Oh, HELL NO.

Game on.

I came home from work with multiple traps.  I set four under the cabinets.  Two more down stairs under the pipes that lead into the cabinets. I emptied an entire can of spray foam darkening every speck of light I could find.  I prepped the bucket, and went to bed.

1130 pm.

Clang, clang. rattle, rattle, rattle.

I filled the bucket from the tub.  Tony scooped the tiny mouse into the bucket for a quick execution and stuck the bucket outside.  We washed up and returned to bed where the cat had decided, now that the coast was clear, he'd go have a snack, his tag clanging against the water bowl.

Pft. *eye roll*  Useless.

Today I did some more cleaning to see if I could find evidence anywhere else. I pulled the oven, nothing.  As best as I could see, under the fridge also showed virtually no evidence of activity, although the dust bunnies are ferocious. I am tempted to pull the dishwasher as I suspect that if there is a nest, it would be in the corner of wasted space, but that is a project for another day.

For now, we wait....

This time, it's personal.