About three weeks ago I arrived home one evening after a full day of merry-making. You can imagine my surprise to find a mouse (for no apparent reason) had decided to climb up sink between my bottles of soap to die
(seriously not for the squeamish. don't scroll down if you don't want to see it)
Of course I was upset, but not nearly as much as I would have been at earlier stages of my life. Over the years, we've gone through a few cycles of mouse infestations which I have mostly ignored. Lately we have been having random 2-3 inch cockroaches showing up unannounced and dead in our apartment. (I am NOT kidding. LITERALLY 2-3 inches. Just to get an idea--I want you to right now put your fingers 2-3 inches apart to imagine it. Yes, 4 cockroaches that size have appeared in our apartment--3 of them dead.) I had gotten used to clearing them out because my roommates are not as city-hardened as I am. In fact, I felt especially capable of dealing with the mouse problem because only a few days earlier I had rescued my otherwise incredibly masculine date from a 2-3 inch cockroach when he crawled on to the sofa with us.
Even though I felt up to the task, it did take me about 10 minutes of looking at the mouse before getting up the courage to try to put the large piece of cardboard under him. When I attempted you can imagine my shock to discover that he (yes, I'm sure it was a boy. i don't know how) was NOT DEAD. I had been watching him NOT move for 10 minutes, but when I touched him with the cardboard his little legs started moving and upon further investigation, I could tell he was definitely breathing.
This changed the situation drastically. I didn't know what to do. I called my big brother, who didn't answer. I called my little brother; no answer. I called my brother-in-law. IS NO ONE EVER HOME WHEN THERE'S A CRISIS?!!
I'm afraid this story is dragging, so I"m going to speed it along now by saying:
I was not able to keep the presence of the mouse from my very very mouse-wary roommate
My little brother called back right exactly when the mouse decided to get up and start walking around, which caused him (my brother) no end of amusement. Apparently I did a lot of shrieking.
I was not able to rally up my nerves quickly enough to prevent the mouse from very slowly walking away and escaping behind the oven.
The next day the mouse decided to reappear back on the counter half-dead again while I was at work, causing mass amount of emotional distress to my poor roommate and necessitating an emergency call to the super to come save her.
This started a deluge of mouse-spottings and trappings that almost forced my roommate to move not only out of the apartment, but out of the city, the state, and this half of the continental divide.
Prayers are answered: after a day of fasting and prayer for the mouse problem to dissipate enough for that my beloved roomie would stay, there was a sudden drop-off in mouse sitings--we've not seen one in 12 days. They disappeared the way day after my fast. True story.
Now, just for kicks, here's a picture I found on the internet of a 3 inch cockroach. Just so you know what we're dealing with here.
4 comments:
Oh my! What a crisis. The mouse picture didn't bother me so much, but that cockroach picture - I'm going to have nightmares. Shudder, shudder. You are incredibly brave.
Josh didn't call you back? He was probably asleep and coulnd't have helped much. And he DEFINATLEY would have laughed too. Sorry! Move to Utah - we only have goat-head stickers and unmarried males around.
Okay, a little more warning before the cockroach picture would have been nice, but you know, there was no way to leave a comment without seeing it. Ew. I'm glad your mouse situation has improved.
I can't decide if I would rather have your half-dead mouse or my phantom mouse that no one has ever seen. We have traps everywhere, and sometimes they spring, yet the mouse is never caught or seen. But at some point, it comes out from somewhere, and chews on the candy that we forget to put away.
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