“I can see the funny side of it. It’s the only thing which has kept me going through all this.”
I hear a plastic bag rattling in the dining room. Found a mouse trapped in a ziplock bag. Zipped it and gently applied pressure. No more mouse. After brekkie more party food put behind TV. All eaten within two hours – amazing! Refill with larger amount. Didn’t expect it to disappear so quickly. Second pile of party food is eaten in two nights.
The verandah has a few partially missing boards in it so I load party food into the spaces. Also, a rat bait container (I had to put a piece of wood on it as rats had moved it away from where it was supposed to be) and a knot hole in one of the boards have food put in them as well. I check these each day and replenish as needed. I’m very careful to make sure the animals can’t access the bait or dead mice. Those furry party go-ers sure love their food! I worry about the electrical wires being chewed through and a fire starting. Where, oh where, is the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
I’m really sleep deprived by now and desperate. So deprived, that one morning when the alarm goes off, I get the clock and try every way I can to turn the darn alarm off but it won’t stop. Then I see my phone, pick it up and that was the thing making all the noise.
Just as well there was no one else in the house. They would have been cursing me.
I try the car for two nights. First night, laying across the back seat. Car needs to be another half metre wider. The cat discovers me and walks over the car a couple of times. Later I hear it telling me it has a mouse for me but I lay there and pretend I don’t know it. So, a very uncomfortable night. Feel like half my brain has dissolved I’m so tired. Next night I sleep in the front of the car. Pretend I’m on an overseas flight. After little sleep, I give up at 4am, taking the doona with me and fall into my bed.
Surprise! There are no mice, absolutely no mice in my bedroom! I sleep for two hours before I need to get up. The mice have partied too long and too hard. The next day I sleep during the morning, that afternoon and sleep again that night.
Postscript. I pick up three dead mice from the verandah. The cat has brought me some furry gifts. I let the chooks out for the afternoon, head back to the verandah only to see, too late, a chook scoffing a mouse down in one go! She was still part of the count when I locked them up that night!
By Bush-Tales