A mouse in my house

Okay... I think this picture is pretty cute.  However, real mice... real mice that are in my house... not so cute.  

Last night I had finished baking some food for Thanksgiving and was cleaning up in the kitchen.  When I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.  Looking up at me through the burner on my stove was a mouse.  I froze wondering if I was really seeing what I was seeing.  When I realized that I was in fact seeing a little mouse,  in my stove of all places,  I immediately left my house.  And Drove.  Quickly.  To Target.  To Buy stuff to eradicate mice.  I bought four traps, the kind that the mouse goes inside,  the trap closes, and you throw away the whole thing... which would have been my preferred method of getting rid of the rodent.  As a back up I bought some glue strip traps.  Not humane, but I was in no mood to start filling out my PETA application.  I came home and started filling the traps and wondered if the mouse was still in my stove.  I began pulling out the burners and the metal thingys that go under the burners and sure enough a set of whiskers attached to a twitching nose peeked out at me.  OH. MY. GOD!   What do I do?  Cover all of the burners with upside down plates.  Thinking this will trap the thing while I think of my next move.  

I get two of the glue trap things out of their package.  Very cautiously, thinking that the mouse at any point, in trying to escape, would jump out of the stove and onto my face, I moved one of the plates enough to place one of the sticky traps... and repeated the process with one other burner hole.  

I have cats.  Three of them to be precise.  None of them have appeared to notice any mouse.  While I am sure my Dad would get his silly grin on his face and shake his head and say something about my cats being 'city cats'... truth be told, I am relieved that my cats are not mouse hunters. (And they do by the way, hunt things that fly, like moths!)  I cannot imagine waking up to a dead mouse being delivered to me by one of my felines or stepping on a dead mouse on my way to the shower in the morning... although the idea of a mouse in my kitchen really had me freaked out.  So freaked out that I had the thought of wanting a husband for that moment... wishing there was someone else here to take the mouse away.  

So after setting my traps, it was about 10:30... and there was no way I was going to go to sleep ... I went into my living room and played around online for a while. At one point one of my non mouse hunting cats who had been laying behind me on the couch, stretched, putting her paw on my shoulder and I screamed, thinking the mouse was on me.   After about 45 minutes I heard something in the kitchen ... a kind of rattling sound.  I was worried... worried that the mouse was onto me, knew that I was out to get it and had called in reinforcements.   So I waited.  At one point the cats perked up, hearing the rattling.  I thought perhaps the mouse had met the sticky trap and was flailing around trying to get free... but I was too scared to look.  I walked in and out of the kitchen several times... pacing, wondering what I would do if I did catch the mouse.  I knew I would have to use a pair of tongs to pick up the sticky mat but.. what if I dropped it and the mouse got free... so I looked around and found a cardboard cylinder container that was holding dishwashing cubes... it was nice and tall and I decided that would make a good travel vessel for the mouse, should it be caught... so I emptied all the dishwasher cubes into a baggie and set the cylinder on my sideboard.  Deep breaths.  

I stood as far away from the stove as I possible could while still having the ability to reach the stove... I started with the front left burner, one of the burners in which I had placed a sticky pad... nothing.   checked the back burner on that same side... nothing... at this point my anxiety was way up.  

I slowly slid the plate covering the front right burner, where I had placed the second sticky thing, and there was nothing there... including the sticky pad... it was gone... which gave me a very strange feeling in my stomach... a sick bottom dropping out kind of feeling... that meant that most likely the mouse was caught on the sticky pad and... it was flopping around so hard that it had moved, with the trap, somewhere under my stove top.  I felt really bad at that point... that the mouse must be scared... but my fear was stronger than my compassion... 

My stove top does not lift up... so I had to somehow figure out how to get to the mouse... so I moved the last plate away from the back right burner and saw the corner of the sticky mat... and got a little shaky... 

The back of my stove rests against a half wall ... so I walked around the half wall and looked onto the stove, and from that angle I could see the mouse, stuck on the trap...between the holes of two burners... Great.  How am I going to get it out?  I was certain that it would get free and climb up my arm and kill me... so I needed a fool proof plan... I got my broom. 

From the back side of my stove I used the broom handle to reach in under the stove top and push the stuck mouse into a hole of the burner on the front of the stove so I would have better access to pull it out.  Each time I got close to the mouse with the broomstick I was afraid the mouse's adrenaline would empower it to get free... but it didn't.  

So then I realized it was time for the tong and cylinder show.  So, I got my tongs, and again standing as far from the stove as I can, tongs in my right hand.. looking, I am sure, like someone impersonating a bad fencing scene... As the tongs got close to the mouse he flailed, startling me, and I screamed.... this scene repeated itself a few times.  Eventually, with a huge pit in my stomach, I managed to pick up the trap with stuck mouse... and drop it into the cardboard cylinder... and holding it as far from my body as I could, took it outside and threw it into my trash can.  

By this time it was about midnight.. my heart was racing, my adrenaline still pumping.. and I was wondering if this mouse has any family members still living in my house.  The traps are still set... not the sticky one, but the other kind... tonight I came home and cleaned my stove, under the stovetop and the oven.... cleaned my counters and sterilized everything.  I will admit that I was nervous that I would happen upon another mouse, but knock on wood... didn't... I went to school today and told the story to some of my coworkers... reenacting the fencing with tongs scene... and they were quite entertained... I also shared it with some of my students who found it hysterically funny.  I was a bit jumpy today... At one point I saw a reflection of light bounce off of something and jumped about three feet in the air! 

It makes me think about being in elementary school... on the swingset, when the person next to you ended up swinging in sync with you, we would say, "Get out of my house you dirty old mouse!"  Not sure where that came from.. but... I am glad that mouse is out of my house... and hope none of his friends and family decide to visit again!