Tag: mouse

Mouse Hunt 2023

Remember last week when I wrote all of those posts about the cats hunting mice? Remember how I saw a mouse in the cellar and said the cats weren’t allowed in the cellar, thus implying that it was up to me to take them out with extreme prejudice?

We are a household with two expert mousers. I was hoping to join their ranks and make it three. I put out a bunch of traps but I failed to catch anything. Worse, rather than just ignoring the traps, when I checked them yesterday the bait had been picked clean. The cellar mouse was just messing with me.

That changed this morning. I checked the traps a few minutes ago. I guess the bait wasn’t quite gone on the trap I put between the two desks.

Maniacal laugh.

I guess we are a three mouser house after all.

Hunting Again

I checked the mouse traps in the cellar. Nothing.

The cats, however, are on the hunt. They just attacked something on the other side of the room. Good luck, mouse hunters.

Just don’t bring any surprises onto our bed tonight, m’kay? Thanks.

Two Hours to Go

The weekend is about two hours away. 123 minutes, to be exact. I’m finding motivation a little tough to come by this afternoon but I will get everything that needs to be done today done today as far as work goes.

Jen is planning on spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. How good does that sound, right? I will go grocery shopping afterward. I’m a little behind on my protein intake for today so I may need to eat something substantial after I get home. I am ahead of the game on hydration though. My post-lunch one hour pause before having anything to drink will end in about three minutes and I’ve got a 20 ounce bottle of Gatorade Zero upstairs in the fridge with my name on it. After that my daily liquid intake goal will be obliterated nicely.

I put out four mouse traps in the cellar. The cats don’t come down here so it should be okay. Let me rephrase, the cats are not allowed down cellar. They very much want to come down here, I just don’t let them. One trap went off but I think that was due to a ghost, or an Earthquake or something. No mice were involved. I did see one running past the base of the stairs. I was upstairs and opened the door to come down and there it was. Asshole. Was it the same mouse I saw earlier? How the hell should I know, it was a mouse. I wasn’t checking for identifying details. Sheesh.

Reminder to myself: Write lyrics tonight. Record vocals in some random empty parking lot tomorrow morning. Maybe take the cameras to the ocean for sunrise on Sunday. The forecast at Salisbury Beach looks promising. We’ll see. Sunrise would be great, but music is what’s important. I also need to clean the kitchen and do a little work straightening out the kids rooms this weekend. That’s important too, but a different kind of important, you know? Health and well being and happiness vs musical mental health. Simple. Speaking of, when’s the next band practice?

Okay, Robert. Go get that Gatorade Zero and finish your work projects. You’ve got this, red head. No problem. 110 minutes until the weekend.

Post script: There was just a blast of thunder outside that was loud enough to shake the walls a little. It didn’t set off any of the mouse traps though. That’s good.

Three Cheers for the Mouse Hunters

Yesterday, for the second time since we adopted our two cats, Lily and Robin were stalking something. They were spending a lot of time watching underneath the refrigerator. Occasionally they would try to reach under and grab something. There were a couple of times where we could hear something rustling but we didn’t actually see anything.

Last night I woke up at around 3:00am. The cats were freaking out. That’s not terribly unusual as they often get the zoomies over night. This time I could hear some squeaking though. They were hunting and their prey was freaking out. Later, after I finished my exercise and guitar playing, I went into the bedroom and saw them both hovering over something in the attached bathroom. I turned on the light. There was a mouse laying on it’s back. I thought it was dead but it twitched. It was playing dead. I went to get something to pick it up with and while my back was turned it ran for it. The cats chased. I closed the door and let them do their thing.

15 minutes later I opened the door again and the mouse was once again playing dead. I had a broom and a cardboard box on me this time. I swept it into the box and it jumped out. I smacked it with the broom and swept it up again. I took it outside and dropped it on the edge of the woods. It made a run for it. Good riddance, home invader.

Three cheers for the mouse hunters who once again earned their keep and protected their new home! I gave them a handful of treats as a reward for a job well done. Good kitties! Good, good kitties!

Post script: Fuck. I am working in the cellar. A second mouse just poked it’s head out from under the desk drawers next to me. Son of a bitch! Well, we do live in the woods and the weather has been awful for a week now. This is to be expected. Still… asshole mouse.

Mouse Situation: Resolved

And just like that, our mouse invader has been vanquished without any bloodshed. The cats might be a little disappointed.

Jen heard some commotion in the bedroom and went to investigate. The cats had knocked over a little waste basket and the mouse ran inside. They had it cornered. The little rodent asshole was frozen in fear, shaking like it was going to tear itself apart. I picked up the basket and took it outside. I flung our little uninvited guest out of the basket and, in a pathetic sense of mischievousness, into what we believe is a groundhog hole on the edge of the back yard. Ain’t I a stinker?

The cats are confused. They still smell Mr Mouse so they are still trying to hunt it. Jen tried to reward them for their hard work by putting out a handful of treats for them. They haven’t even noticed yet, but they will once things calm down.

Good kitties. You have protected your house. I’m proud of you.

Meeces to Pieces

It’s time for our two new cats to prove their worth to the household. Yesterday we started seeing clear signs that they were stalking something. The hunt was on. Last night Harry got a brief glimpse: a mouse. Later, Jen and I also saw it hiding in a tiny space between a cabinet and a wall. I tried getting it with a broom but failed miserably.

The cats were hyper vigilant throughout the night but haven’t had any success yet. There was a moment this morning where I heard them attacking from the next room, and also heard their prey squeaking in terror. I felt kinda bad, but that’s the price you pay for invading our home.

The cats have two responsibilities in this house. One is to be adorable and let us pet them and snuggle them. The other is to eliminate small furry invaders. It’s time to hold up your end of the bargain, Robin and Lily. I have full confidence in your mousing abilities. Make Daddy proud, girls.

No problems last night as far as stomach pain goes. I was a little nervous before bed. I was a little queasy. Not bad, but just aware that I wasn’t at 100%. I was also so thoroughly exhausted that I couldn’t really think straight. I turned in at about 11:00 but I forgot to clean out my CPAP mask so I went to sleep without it. I woke up at about 3:30. My first thought was, here we go again. Then I realized what woke me up. It wasn’t in my stomach, it was on my stomach. Miss Lily had jumped on me and was very insistent about showing me some affection. I gave her what she wanted. She doesn’t really show me any attention like that, so I wasn’t about to say no.

Once she had her fill I tried going back to sleep, but I was pretty much awake. I just sort of laid there for a while, then I got up and got a new CPAP mask out of my closet. I had to deal with Miss Robin who ran inside while I had the door open and wouldn’t come out. I swapped out the drool’d in mask for the new, clean one and went back to bed. I got to listen to an attack on the mouse before I fell asleep. My alarm was set for 7:00am but I snoozed it until a little before 8:00. So the good news is, no stomach issues or anything health related. The bad news is I didn’t sleep through the night the way I was hoping. The lesser good news is that I did snag about seven hours of sleep that I very much needed, though I am still feeling really tired this morning.

Here’s hoping tonight continues to show improvement.

I was afraid of this. I have fully committed myself to binge watching all of Star Wars The Clone Wars. There are 133 episodes. It’s going to take a while. I know I tried doing this once before but fell off the wagon very early. Why? What stopped me?

During this morning’s faux jog (pronounced, yog) I found out. Season one, episode eight… the entire episode focuses on Jar Jar and it is just as insufferably awful as you would expect. I made it through without vomiting but it did sap my re-watching enthusiasm by about 65%. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go back to the X-Files for a couple of days.

If I don’t get a haircut today I am going to go insane. Just warning you. Ya know, in case I start posting things that are more insane than normal. If I do, you’ll know why.

RIP Mouse… Jerk

Well that was fun.

I logged into a video conference call at 10:00am. At 10:02am a mouse tried to climb the floor lamp next to my desk. It almost got to the top before falling off. It was equal parts startling and freakin’ adorable.

A mouse. I mean, it is that time of year, right? The weather is getting colder and the critters are looking for warmth. I get it. It’s not surprising.

This mouse was either an arrogant asshole, or supremely stupid. Why? Because when I first saw it I made some noise and moved around. I was on video in a meeting so I couldn’t get up and chase it. I made my very large presence known and that should have scared it off, right? Nope. The little shit hung around. It tried going up the light a few times, and it was running in and out of the pile of stuff in the corner next to the desk, and it came strolling out from under my desk a couple of times. It didn’t get the hint.

When my string of three consecutive video meetings ended I got up and kicked some stuff and made a lot of noise. I had a minute or two where I thought I was in the clear. Then I heard it behind me. It was standing next to my amplifier. Yeah, my Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue that costs over a grand. It was curled up next to the power cable. Oh no, you little shit. I got up and it ran. It went under my desk and hid behind my little foot rest. I kicked it… hard. It dashed to the other side of the room. I went after it. Eventually I lost it in the closet. I hoped that would be the end, but somehow knew it would be dumb enough to come back.

I logged onto Lowes’ website and started shopping for mouse traps. I was thinking of capture traps because I don’t want open traps that Patches the Wonder Cat could accidently trip and mangle herself on. That’s when I heard it again. It was next to the amplifier again. I got up, walked over, and kicked it. It smooshed between my foot and the wall.

The end.

Fucking mouse.

Two Firsts

Isn’t it a lovely morning? Doesn’t the sky look a little brighter? Doesn’t the air feel a little fresher? Doesn’t the grass look a little greener? If I didn’t know better I would say the Red Sox eliminated the Yankees from the post season or something. If I didn’t know better, of course.

Two weird things happened to me just now.

Tuesday is trash pick up day in our neighborhood. Today is Wednesday. I should have taken the barrels in from the street yesterday, but I didn’t so I took them in this morning. We had a shit load of trash go out this week so there were four barrels. Two of them have their covers attached and two of them don’t. The attached guys are much bigger than the others so I figured I would grab those two first and walk them back to the side of the house where we store them.

One of the lids was closed. The other was open. When I went to flip it closed I noticed we had a stow away. There was a chipmunk in the barrel. The barrel was otherwise empty, but he was just hanging out. I figured I’d be nice and not give the little bastard a heart attack by carrying him away and I tipped the barrel onto it’s side. Run away, Chip or Dale, be free! He didn’t run away. He just sat there. What the hell, rodent? Get out of my damn barrel. I then started to tip the barrel upside down and that did it. He dashed out at full speed. So long, friend. I hope you don’t get hit by a car or anything.

So the two big barrels are now properly stowed away and I went back to the street to get the smaller barrels. I put the cover onto one and was reaching down to the ground (given my girth, that must be pretty funny to watch) to pick up the second cover and right where my hand was about to grab I see fur. It was a mouse. A little grey looking mouse, snuggled against the cover. He probably saw me coming and tried to hide under it, but I bumped it a little and he was exposed. Poor little guy. He was clearly scared shitless and didn’t know what to do. He started to go for the cover again, but I kicked it out of the way. The last thing I want is to actually reach down to get the cover and have mickey freak out and bite me and give me rabbis that turn me into some kind of Cujo. You know how it is, I’m sure. Mighty mouse, in his fear started burrowing. I reached down for the cover and startled him again so he ran a little ways away and started burrowing again.

Two trash barrel related rodent incidents within seconds of each other. I have never had either of those things happen to me before. What is going on with the universe? Is this the start of some weird, lame, doomed to fail, rodent uprising? Were they just Yankees fans who tried to drink their misery away and were too hung over this morning to run away when the gigantic human came stomping around?

We may never know the truth. At least there weren’t any squirrels. I’ve seen Rick and Morty. I know better than to mess with squirrels*.

*From Morty’s Mind Blowers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpZZQ2ov4lc

Bedtime

My mother was asleep by 9:00 tonight. Thank goodness. There was no pain outbreak. Now we just have to hope she sleeps through the night.

One of the mouse traps was tripped about an hour ago. Nothing in it. There is still at least one Mickey among us. Great. I paid for a single but I guess I have a roommate.

I’m going to sleep. Fingers crossed I can get 6-7 hours of good sleep. Yippee.

Meeces to Pieces

I know a lot of people will be offended by this one. I apologize. I mean no offense, but I am also not sorry so… sorry.

Look back two posts ago. See that picture? Can you guess where this one is going?

My mother saw a furry little rodent critter today. It came out from under her dresser, ran a while along the length of it, and then ducked under again. My brother asked me to pick up some traps on the way over.

As mentioned in the previous post, the secret is peanut butter. I set one up and slid it onto a spatula and gently placed it under the hospital bed in the living room. No problem. Then I went to setup a second trap and it went off on me three friggin’ times before I could get it onto the spatula, then it went off again when I gently placed it on the floor behind the comfy chair. One more try and I finally got it down. Then I baited a third trap and put it under my mother’s dresser, near where she saw one earlier.

I think that was at about 8:45 or so. Maybe a little earlier, but about then. The trap under the comfy chair went off at 9:30. I figured it was just touchy because that was the bastard that gave me all the trouble.

Nope.

Rest in peace, you little home invading rodent fucker. Meeces to Pieces, indeed.