Murry the Mouse

Murry the Mouse

by Mike Vreeland

This is a tale for the ages that we all may have to deal with. I had gone to 2  rallies – 1 in Elijay, Ga, and 1 in Sevierville TN when this tale begins. The 2 rallies were back-to-back so I travelled from GA to TN. When I returned to Ashland I noticed what tasted like mouse dropping – ha ha made you gag! No I saw them so I went on a mouse hunt and found evidence of mice mischief. My paper towel roll had been chewed along with some toilet paper and the varmint even tried eating his way into a container that held dog cookies. Fortunately most of the “food like stuff” I have is in some sort of container but mice can be pretty persistent. The next day I did not see any evidence of mice mischief so I thought maybe he had gone. To verify I left a small piece of dog cookie on the counter overnight. Sure enough next morning it was gone. So I pulled out my trusty mouse trap and got it ready to set up for that night. Later that day it was dinner time for the pups so I when into the dog cabinet to get their food and we met, mouse eye to human eye. The first thing I thought of “is there such a thing as an attack mouse?” I kid you not he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. I slammed the cabinet door and got ready to face my foe. I put on some gloves and glasses in case he was an “attack mouse” - did not want him to eat my eye and also so I could see him to grab him. Well you can imagine how well that went. I whipped open the cabinet door, reached in with my gloves looking for the mouse, we met eye to eye again and he was off. Jump to the floor and scooted under the cabinet. I tried to grab him a couple times but all I got was air. Of course when he jumped to the floor you would have thought I was an Irish Step Dancer. After the excitement calmed down a thought went through my mind - “what if he had jumped on me”? I suspect I would have screamed like a girl, continued my Irish Step Dancing, and no doubt would have wet myself. Thank god that did not happen. Although after thinking about that I thought I heard Marcy laughing, it would have been quite a show. Well human technology won out and I caught him that night. Humans 1, Mice 0!!! Now comes the taking stuff out of the drawers, washing it, and putting it back. Did I mention how much I hate washing dishes – oh well it had to be done.

 

I was feeling pretty good about my intellectual prowess conquering my arch enemy – the mouse. A couple days later I noticed mouse dropping again. I wonder how could that be then I thought maybe I should not have celebrated so much because his ghost is haunting me. I wish it had been his ghost but the mouse dropping were real so back I went to my mouse hunting gear and pulled out my mouse trap. I again had to pull out all the silverware and again wash everything and clean out the drawer. I did mention how much I really hate washing dishes didn’t I. This time I wrapped all the silverware trays with saran wrap except for one set of silverware for me. This will stop him from leaving dropping in the trays and I should be good till I catch this varmint as well. As it turns out Mouse #2 was smarter – I could not catch him over a couple days. So not having any luck with the mouse trap I got some of that sticky stuff you lay out. First let me tell you that sticky stuff is REALLY sticky. I did not have a shirt on and was looking at the package and was trying to take it apart. Well as luck would have it the sticky pad slipped out of my hand, I went to grab it and it landed on my stomach. Well this is a spoiler alert – if you don’t want to have something stuck in your mind’s eye that will haunt you for years – skip to next paragraph. You have been warned. I have a relative hairy chest and of course stomach. Well did I mention that sticky pad is really sticky. If you have ever seen one of those videos of a hairy guy (the ones I saw make me think they are related to a wookie given the amount of hair) who decides he is going to get a waxing, well it is hilarious and worse yet you can actually feel the pain when the wax is jerked off. Similar problem, that green sticky stuff was a real challenge to remove. I did get it off but not without tearing up some. So I put the sticky pads in the bay and next morning I found a mouse stuck to the pad. Wow was that terrible – I did not like that stuff and how the mouse could suffer. So having a soft heart I walked over a hedge and carefully (as I could) peel off the mouse and let him loose. I hope it lived. So I tossed the traps and sticky pads figuring I was finally done. Well imagine my surprise two days later when I found mouse dropping in my silverware drawer AGAIN. So AGAIN, I had to wash the stuff, wrap in in saran warp. I did mention I really hate washing dishes and I still do not like doing it.

 

So what to do for Mouse #3 – that’s right a third mouse. So I went to the local Walmart's I found a humane – yes humane – mouse trap so I bought it. That night I placed the trap in the silverware drawer to see how it works. To be honest I think those mice are smarter than we think. I suspect they knew how much I hated washing dishes and kept going into the silverware drawer to leave their droppings for spite. Next morning sure enough I caught the mouse, whoopee! I will include a picture of my humane mouse trap with the mouse looking out. So now what. I initially thought of going over to a friend’s RV and putting Murry the mouse – that’s right I named him, we had become very close after all - in one of their bays so Sugar (their little bitty dog) would have a playmate. If Sugar and Murry were set on the ground they would almost be eye to eye. But I suspect my friend and of course Sugar would not have appreciated my gesture so I didn’t do it. Instead I took Murry to the woods and released him. Bottom line the “Mouse Hunt” series is over never to be repeated – I hope.