Wednesday, February 02, 2005

I'm a Mur-diddly-urderer!

I'm having a spiritual crisis. I try to regard all life as part of God's creation, and try to recognize that every living thing has its role to play -- no matter how ugly or annoying or potentially dangerous it might be.

In that spirit, I've been using a humane trap to deal with my recent mouse problem. (I've had my apartment for 8.5 years and never had a mouse until this fall.) I've got a few of the cute little buggers (they trip a switch and get flipped into a cage) and relocated them several blocks away to Fort Tryon Park. But this week they stepped up the war.

Principally my complaint about them has been that they wake me up in the middle of the night scratching around under the radiator in the bedroom, and sometimes I hear them in the walls. (See the post Das Glückliche Mäuschen for one hilarious adventure.) Well, this week I was awakened by the most unsettling realization that one of them was chewing away on that unsightly mess of wires and computer cables under my desk.

Last night I came home to discover that a potholder I'd left on top of the stove had a hole eaten in it and the filling was all over everywhere -- it looked like it exploded. There were little mouse droppings all over the stove. Then, on top of the refrigerator something had gnawed into a box of arborio rice, which had spilled out and mixed with the mouse turds. Both the stove and the refrigerator got wiped down with bleach.

Then I marched straight to the hardware store, bought poison, and set it out in the obvious areas. I washed my hands and disinfected myself with a large vodka tonic for good measure. (Starbucks needs to expand into the liquor industry. I'll have a grande cosmopolitan, thank you. To go.)

I'm not opposed to mice or particularly scared of them. But they're eating my computer cables, which is potentially expensive and if they expose wires, dangerous. And they're leaving droppings on top of my stove! They have the option of using my humane trap, but I guess they're choosing to be difficult. Still, I feel guilty.

3 comments:

Thunder Jones said...

Want a tip? Get a cat. Problem solves sans poison.

Andy said...

Yeah, I know. I really do want a cat. I just had a little difficulty with the last one...a big chunk of my credit card debt is vet-related. I have a big wish-list for when I get an actual job; cat is on the list right after cable (and no, the list is not in alphabetical order).

Andy said...
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