Monday, March 19, 2012

there's a mouse in the bed?!?!?!!?

one of our cats, barrel, is an awesome mouser.

when we were still back in the city, and our friends were taking care of the Manor, they told us that every time they came up to the Manor, there was evidence of mice. since we landed in December 2010 - we haven't seen a single mouse nor any mouse activity. that's because we have 2 cats - one who is useless in the mousing department (named noodle. but he is a good frogger!), but then there is barrel - awesome supreme mouser!!!

back in the city he would catch, and bring home, countless numbers of field mice and voles. we managed to save almost all of them. he didn't kill them - just took them home! ick! but since he has been here he doesn't bring mice home anymore. and that's a good thing! anyway, when he was catching them and bringing them home, we always knew. if the mouse or vole had a chance, they would hide under the couch or a piece of furniture and barrel would not move for hours. then we would realize that there was a mouse or vole under the couch. then we would spend several hours moving furniture, scrambling after the little mouse or vole to save it.

this morning we woke up and barrel was at the end of my side of the bed staring at the bottom of the dresser. we both kind of looked at each other and said "oh no". we got up and normally barrel would come running for his breakfast. nope, still staring and guarding. we knew what we were up against! jambaloney got the flashlight and i took barrel into the kitchen. jambaloney moved the dresser and searched for a good 20 minutes. then he came out and said that he couldn't find it. barrel ran right back into the bedroom and starting making his funny little meows. we followed him saying "what is it barrel? show us". he was meowing something fierce and jumped up on jambaloney's side of the bed. then he started digging under the blankets. jambaloney grabbed one side of the blanket and i grabbed the other - and sure enough a little mouse scuttled from under the blanket and ran to the top of my mattress, which was a little away from the wall, and scurried down and behind.

you will remember that we built a platform bed that is 7ft X 9ft. it goes from one side of the room to the other. and it has all of the compartments for storage underneath it. you can see pics of it here. well anyway, that mouse is somewhere under the bed at this point. oh man!

so we closed the door to our bedroom, opened the window in our bedroom and are hoping that the little guy will smell the fresh air and make a break for it. there is a shelf outside on our plastic enclosed porch right by our window. we put some bird seed, cat food and a little plate of water. we hope he will smell the food and go to it and then make a break for it. we also propped open both cat doors so that he can make a break for it. we believe that he is a field mouse and really hope that he makes a break for it!

we are going to wait until later this afternoon to go in and start tearing the bed apart. just to give him a chance to make a break for it! ugh. the last thing in the world i wanted to see this morning - a mouse in my bed! i won't be getting back into that bed until the entire room has been searched.

26 comments:

  1. OMG!!... we get lizard in our house all the time and You should see the cat and kids going crazy.. Once a green tree frog got it and was stuck to the boys bathroom mirror...hilarious!

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    1. ooooh JUGM - i think i would prefer a mouse! our other cat is a known frogger - he catches them and brings them in just to play with. he hasn't hurt one yet - i don't know how he catches them?????

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  2. Back in 19080 RMan had a cat that caught a rat. Brought it back for Dad's approval whilst dad was at work, let the dang thing go in the kitchen - we only discovered it 4 months later (strange smell prompted the discovery)after it had spent a leisurely holiday eating topside mince, and lapping nice creamy milk. Took 3 grown men, a tennis racket, a squash racket and a golf club, stripping the oven, stripping the fridge to finally find it lurking inside the back of the broken washing machine. Not pleasant. Definitely put me off cats...

    Good luck.

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    1. bahahahahahahaha! oh that is awesome and awful all at the same time Dani!

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  3. Years ago, my family had a female toy fox terrier. The "force" was strong with this one and during the fall when the mice would come in out of the fields, she would hunt herself ragged in the kitchen. She was often successful and any issues with mice were soon resolved. The only issue was when she caught them she would immediately eat them before we could take them away from her.

    She would soon be sick and barf them up on the carpet. It was a mess to clean up, but she was far and away better than most of the cats we ever had.

    That dog was a hoot and I still miss her almost 14 years later.

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    1. oh Matt - she sounds like a great dog! i have never met a dog that eats mice before! she sounds like she was a real live force to be reckoned with! i am sorry that you miss her but am glad that you got spend her life with her!

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  4. Since everyone sseems to be sharing mouse stories I'll tell you one of mine. This happened in our last house a few years ago.

    I was sitting in the kitchen at the computer which was by the fridge, and the cat kept staring at the corner of the refridgerator (you know the stare). She stared for a long time, as cats do.

    Finally she wiggled her bum (I think that's how they wind up the spring), and lept over my lap. She landed on top of the poor little unsuspecting mouse in that one leap. I'm sure it didn't see it coming and must have died of fright because she didn't even get a chance to take a sniff before I got to it. It was dead.

    Great mouser. Her daughter is burried out back of this house.

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    1. oh Sue - yes - they stare and then do the bum wiggle thing for sure! yep, sounds like it died of complete fright! and that sounds like one great mouser!

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  5. This is the first year we haven't had any mice in the house at all. Not one single mouse in any trap and no droppings. I check often so my food storage stays safe.

    I think you handled it better than I would have. I'm sure I would have yelled something starting with 'F' and washed all the sheets and blankets. I don't like rodents, filthy little hobbits.

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    1. Max - there was many words that started with "F" coming out of my mouth - i can't stand the idea of a mouse in the bed!!! he was only in the bed for a few moments - but still. and i hope he warns all of his mouse friends about our barrel!

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  6. Well at least it wasn't a bat.

    Good luck de-mousing the bedroom. Hopefully, it doesn't invite its friends in for a party instead of going back outside.

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    1. heck Mrs. S - i once had to catch a bat at work and get it out the door - 4 stories and 3 elevator rides down - and no one would help me!!!

      we are now in the process of de-mousing the bedroom! and i think that mouse learned his lesson. hopefully he will be warning his friends!

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  7. kymber,
    That is soooo gross! I am with you about not getting back in bed. However, a trap would have ensured its demise and you would know exactly where it is. That mouse, if it has decided to hunker down, will make beds in your bunny ears. It will chew up things under your bed. Now, didn't I make you feel better?

    I have no mercy when it comes to mice. They die or I know why! I had a rat coming into my kitchen for two weeks until I found the hole and plugged it and removed the means to come from the basement to the kitchen. It was climbing up a curtain that was hanging at one of the basement windows.

    Eeek! Good luck!

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    1. Linda - i don't like traps and things of that nature. and we haven't seen a single mouse or evidence of mice since getting here, probably because of the cats. we have checked our mattresses and the stuff stored under the bed but nothing is amiss.

      imagine - a rat who knew how to climb curtains - bahahahahah! too funny!

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    2. Hmmm, I did not know that I posted as Linda.

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  8. Spooky wierd...The Grey Knight and I were talking about mice this weekend...even picked up old fashioned mouse traps, since they were on sale..Thankfully ours stay in the gargage!

    Funny thing is his mom used to put out the dryer lint for the birds to nest with...I'm still finding dryer lint up in eaves as I repair things around the farm...the little mice made nests with it!

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    1. Beth - i am glad that yours stay in the garage! teehee - and that is funny that they used the dryer lint that was supposed to be for the birds. we keep finding insulation in trees and stuff around here - the squirrels are stealing insulation from our basement and making nests with it!!!

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  9. Hey, catch it...they make great BBQ...kinda sweet tasting too.

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    1. we caught it, dear sweet one, but set it free. he was way too tiny to bother marinating!

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  10. To bad my Dad is not here with us. I could of sent him to you with his 22, and rat shot. He WAS the last of the great white hunters.(story from my blog.)

    BBQ mice, taste great. But can be a bit hard to stuff. Plus it takes about nine or more to make a meal. They also, are hard to keep from falling through the grill.

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    1. Flier - we don't shoot or kill anything - but i did love that story about your Dad! and ya - mice would just slip through the holes in our grill!

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  11. My wife was on the sofa one night, having fallen asleep watching TV. Her eyes flew open when when something made a scurrying noise on the back of the sofa. She then saw a little mouse jump onto the blanket covering her stomach, so she jumped. At that, the little mouse flew from the sofa and landed atop the little blanket that was covering our little dachshund. She jumped from her bed and turned to see what had landed on her. The mouse took off for the laundry room with the dog in hot pursuit, but her moment's shock put her a jaw snap or two behind her prey as it ducked behind the washer. It was two days later before we caught it. (Sorry, we don't don't catch and release.)

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    1. Mr. Smythe - that must have scared your wife to heck! and too bad your little daschund hadn't have been just a little faster! a new post coming on our feelings about catch and release. i anxiously await your opinion on it!

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  12. You do realize that he is bringing you trophies, right? Cats are notorious for bringing their owners trophies. That makes sense on why he's bringing you live ones. He's probably very confused that you act so weird about such an awesome gift. :)

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  13. 45er - this is the first mouse that he has brought home since getting here to the Manor in december 2010 - i think the city mice must be slower or something because he was catching mice and voles almost every day back in the city!!! and yes, we do know that he was bringing them home as trophies. we always made a big deal over petting him and lathering attention on him whenever he did it. and in the event of SHTF - i am sure that he could be taught to bring home even more trophies!

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