Mouse in the House: Part 1

I’m going to start this blog off with a few disclaimers:

1.       Don’t judge me

2.       Don’t make fun of me

3.       This blog is not for the faint of heart

As you read in our previous blog (http://stewartsinafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/unwelcomed-visitors.html), Sean and I had some unwelcomed visitors staying with us. One of these visitors was a mouse.

In the evenings, we’d hear him/her/them, running above us in the attic area.  In the mornings, we’d wake up to find our bananas half eaten and poop on our stove and buffet. It was getting a bit tiresome.  I love bananas (especially here as they are SO fresh) but I was realizing that I couldn’t buy them anymore because they were a wonderful attraction for this annoying rodent.

Yesterday (Saturday), Sean and I had planned on going to see the kids at the Veronica Home. We were all excited to finally visit with them. However, our plans ended up changing pretty quickly.

Sean and I were getting breakfast ready and I went to the utensil drawer and was not happy with what I saw: mouse poop in our utensil drawer of the buffet. So I looked in every other drawer and cupboard of the buffet and what did I find...more and more mouse poop.   So I prepared for our Saturday to be a thorough cleaning day!

It's everywhere. :-(

So much cleaning to do.

As we were finishing up our breakfast, James had come in to say good morning to us. I told him about all the mouse poop and so he opened up the buffet cupboard to see for himself.  And then there it was...

A fuzzy mouse in our cupboard.

So I took off (watching the buffet carefully for any slight movement) for the sitting room and quickly perched my feet up on the couch (remember disclaimer 1 – don’t judge me!).

James began clearing out the buffet, trying to get this mouse out of it.

And then it ran across one of the shelves of the buffet and James had grabbed its tail but it managed to break free. But James knew that he had pulled a piece of the tail on the mouse, injuring it a bit.

It then ran out of the buffet, tried to go through the hallway door but we had closed the door to keep it contained. It then bolted behind our TV stand where James and Sean got on either side of it to force the mouse in the direction of James.

Don’t worry about me though; I was safely on the couch, watching the whole thing with anticipation and excitement (and with a camera in my hand). *Insert Disclaimer 1 here again.*

It finally came out from behind the TV stand and there were a few rounds of a “cat and mouse” scenario but then the mouse made a terrible mistake.  It climbed the wall to the windows, thinking (and I assume hoping) that the windows were opened. But they weren’t and so it kept bouncing off the glass, running along the window ledge. It then tried to climb the curtains but James had caught it by the tail. James stunned it and after a few pictures of proudly displaying his capture, he took it outside, killed it and disposed of it.

James is so proud!

It's not cute so don't even say it!

There was a piece of fabric on the floor that I had picked up and was playing with in my hand. I looked at it a bit and then jokingly said to James, “Hey, this looks like a rat’s tail.” James took it from my hand, looked at and then looked at me and giggled, “Mum, it is the rat’s tail, the skin of it. I knew I got part of the tail.”

Gross, isn't it?

So here I was, for the past five minutes, playing with what I thought was a piece of fabric in my hand, but it was actually the skin of the mouse’s tail. Yes, I was disgusted and yes, I washed my hands with warm water and bleach. Ugh!

I had figured that we were done and went into the kitchen to start boiling water (soaking everything in the buffet with water and bleach) when James had said that mice aren’t usually alone so the second one had to be in the house still, perhaps even in the buffet hiding. 

Sean and James started to move the buffet back into its position against the wall when I heard Sean say, “Mere, look out!”

Now, this is where Disclaimer 2 comes in to place. 

I turn around in the kitchen to see a mouse running straight for me.  So what do I do? Oh gosh....

I scream.

Like a girl.

Who’s being chased by the ghost in Scream (I really could audition to be a screamer for a horror movie).

And let’s not forget, I screamed and did the whole running in a spot thing.

*Again, disclaimer 1 and 2 inserted here please.*

The stupid mouse was probably more terrified of my scream then I was of it.  And so it ran behind the stove.

The whole scene probably only lasted five seconds but it felt like minutes.

And so Sean and James came running in and I told them that the mouse was behind the stove and then I booted out of the kitchen and back to safety in the sitting room, with my feet up on the couch.

Sean and James tore the stove apart; no mouse. They tore the fridge apart; no mouse. They went through all the cupboards; no mouse. They went through the pantry; no mouse. It was like the stupid thing vanished into thin air.  And so we had to leave it. We knew that it would eventually return.

And so our Saturday was spent cleaning and bleaching down everything.  

What a great man!

The Amazing Bleach!!

Thankfully our evenings ended with a girl’s night for me with my dear friends (and brownies and ice cream for dessert for us) and a guy’s night for Sean at the club watching the football match between Manchester United and Barcelona (Yay Barca!!).

Did the second mouse return? Let’s save that for Part 2 of Mouse in the House.

Never a dull moment around here.  J

Much love,

Meredith