Last year I knew there was a mouse in the house. It kept itself fairly scarce, so I set a token snap trap but wasn’t overly upset when the bait disappeared & the trap didn’t go off.
However, 2 weeks ago everything changed.
I live in the maids quarters in my late grandparents’ house. The main house is uninhabited except for my use of the kitchen. To reach the kitchen I must leave my room, walk down a short hallway, go through the laundry room past the workshop, walk through a long family room, & then enter a small foyer which connects to the kitchen on the left & my grandmother’s deserted study on the right. It’s a small trek.
One night, as I entered the kitchen, something zoomed past my feet & hid behind the stove. I waited. It zoomed back out, past me, into the study. I followed, turned on the light, & waited. I listened to it move furtively behind a filing cabinet. I stood there & just waited. Suddenly, it popped out on top of the desk & just stared at me. We stared at each other. It was a moment.
It was larger than I’d expected. I decided I’d have to get one of those inhumane sticky traps since the snap trap hadn’t worked. Tomorrow. Eventually.
That night while I was sleeping, the rat made its way across the family room & through the laundry room, & vandalized my Dove soap.
It was calling me out.
Boomer & I spent half an hour in the study, with me flinging furniture out of the way & him lunging for the rat. Boomer has a really impressive nose, & he’s super drivey; it was pretty fun. The rat finally eluded us by escaping into the family room (where I can’t fling furniture), but I gave Boomer the doggy high five anyway. It’s all about the entertainment value, right?
KK procured his friend’s electronic rat trap, which electrocuted its victims. I set it up with a piece of smoked gouda. I figured if the rat was going to ride the lightning, he should at least have a decent last meal.
No hits.
My Terminix guy came by yesterday & offered to set up some traps for me. As he attached the tension bar to the bait plate, I realized he was doing it differently than how I’d done mine. Apparently I set my snap trap wrong. Oh well. Six hours later I heard the trap go off. From the tip of its tail, the rat was over a foot long, & it likely hadn’t taken the smoked gouda in the electronic trap simply because it couldn’t fit.
Anyway, thanks Terminix guy.
