….why paisley???

i found some evidence of mice in the house a few weeks ago.. it came and went without incident so my fears subsided and i took for granted that they had just passed thru and were gone on their own..

much to my dismay earlier this week i found out this was not the case.. it came to light after one of the girls i worked with at the deli asked me to provide her with a letter of recommendation as she is applying for a scholarship to go to cosmetology school.. i was delighted to do so,, i gleefully prepared the letter,, and went to get an envelope to put it in..

here is where the “fun” begins!!!! i store the envelopes in a dresser that is full of stuff i rarely if ever use,, so imagine my surprise when i discovered all three drawers in that dresser were filled with mouse droppings!!!! i was not only grossed out but scared to death that other areas of the house such as ben’s room,, which is rarely if ever used,,  would be infested as well.. fortunately i looked around as much as i could in there without being too invasive,, and found no evidence of their presence.

at first i could not fathom how this could have happened.. my house is essentially one large room with a separate bedroom that is full of ben’s belongings,, and where he sleeps when he comes down for a visit..  then it occurred to me this must have happened when i changed the furniture around because moo moo was trapping the other dogs behind the dressers i use to subdivide my studio into separate rooms,,  and attacking them..

during that time i had placed the dresser in the far corner of the room,, and had a craft table set up in front of it for several months,, so there was literally zero human activity in that dresser while it was in that inconvenient spot.. i have to believe it was during that time that the mice,, and or mouse took up residence in the secluded dresser..

however,, in the last week or so i put the row of dressers back in place so as to disguise the fact that my bed is in the same room,, and must have thrown mother mouse off the idea of nesting in the dresser.. so when i moved it close enough to me to hear anything that might have been going on in the dresser,, mother mouse evidently made other plans.. i never saw or heard anything that would lead me to believe anything was awry within the dresser…

needless to say,, immediately upon discovery,,  i emptied the drawers of all of their contents,, threw away the clothing that had been destroyed by the mice,, and washed all the remaining items.. i left the drawers empty and immediately called ben in hopes that he would authorize a call to the professionals in order to get this problem under wraps..

i was not so lucky.. instead he suggested that he come down for a few days and help me.. i was thrilled to accept his offer as i have never dealt with such a problem and was clueless..

so,, i picked him up on monday and he and i went and bought the necessary traps to catch the mice.. i thought he would come home and set the traps and stay a few days and help me collect the bodies,, as surely under his experienced guidance we would catch the mice and the problem would be solved.. unfortunately,, we all know what they say about the best laid plans…..

as soon as we arrived home,, we set to work looking thru all the clutter that is ben’s room.. my stress level  went thru the roof when ben found a nest and four newborn baby mice in a dresser he has hidden in his closet!!! you can imagine how creeped out i was by this discovery,, but ben,, being the sweet heart that he is picked up and disposed of the babies for me without any problem..

once that was taken care of,, it was time to set the traps.. within the first thirty seconds of him fiddling with mouse trap and nearly losing a finger in so doing,, it became evident that ben had no more idea how to set and place a mousetrap than i did..

i immediately told him this was never going to work and i felt the need to call in the professionals.. he agreed.. and that is exactly what i did.. i called them post haste and made an appointment for wednesday..

so yesterday the technician came out and set up traps in the house in hopes of catching mama mouse and any other mice that may have taken up residence in the house with her.. he also set bait boxes around the perimeter of the house as well as in the tool shed in order to squelch the wood rat activity that has been slowly plaguing me since last summer.

my only concern at this point is that one of the poisoned rats and or mice will be meandering around the yard trying to die,, and inga will come upon them and catch them.. the technician has advised me that they place the bait boxes in many homes that have pets and have never had such an incidence,, but my guts are still in knots as it is difficult, if not impossible for me to trust that the technician knows his stuff and my puppy is safe..  given the circumstances,, however,  i either have to trust him or learn to live with a rodent infestation and that isn’t going to happen…

all in all i am relived that ben has agreed to have the professionals maintain rodent control here on a monthly basis and he will pay for it.. he has also authorized them to come out and seal off any areas of the house that they feel would accommodate the entrance of any other mice in the future,, and that will make me feel more secure as well.. i don’t know what i would do without that man,, he is truly a godsend in my life..

this morning much to my chagrin,, none of the mouse traps were “occupied”,, so that means either mama mouse moved on ,, or the mice in my house are not as stupid as i was praying they would be..

thankfully,, since i signed up for the monthly maintenance program i can call the technician and he will come and help me if the traps are not effective.. he will also come and remove any dead bodies if i cannot bring myself to do it..

ben says,, “get used to it,, this is just a part of country living..” as i cringe and reply,, “yeah,, but up until now i have always been a city girl!!!!”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 12:28 pm and is filed under life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.