Okay, random title I know, but it'll make sense - just let me explain. I am a big fan of
Addison Road's music and I love reading
Jenny Simmon's blog (the lead singer for Addison Road). She always writes things that often make me laugh. I appreciate her humor, her heart, and her honesty. She wrote about a mouse escapade she had (
click here to read her mouse story). I decided to email her and share my story because my roommates and I recently have had mouse issue lately too (my mouse story is below). She wrote on her blog recently and mentioned my email to her and had an awesome post about how our only true commodity is ourselves. I encourage you to read it (
click here to read post where she mentions my email :-)).
Creepy Mouse Catastrophe of 2010Here is my mouse story (I know it's a bit lengthy but I have to give the details - otherwise it would just be facts and not funny, hehe).
So we've lived in Thailand long enough to pretty much get used to the geckos sharing our living space that poop on our CLEAN dish rack (ewww, i know) and pop out and scare us half to death when we least expect it, etc. We've even become more tolerable of the ants who invade every crevice of our house and contaminate our hard earned money (well, it's our food, but food that we pay for!). However, we didn't sign up for mice. I mean, my friend Caitlin lived in a village in Zambia, Africa for 2 years and had to kill spitting cobras and a black mamba with a machete and a garden hoe. So, in comparison, I can't complain because her situation was life threatening and mine wasn't. But let's not compare right now - let's just relive the Creepy Mouse Catastrophe of 2010.
There are 5 of us girls that live in a 3 bedroom/ 2 bathroom house. One of my roommates was back home for the holidays so there were just 4 of us (or so we thought). One night, we're hanging out in our living room and there are little black spots on our floor mats. I take them outside and knock off the yuckies and pretend like it's just gecko droppings (you know, since I've pretty much conquered my fear of those) or something . . . However, one of the roommates drops the bomb "guys - I think we have a mouse." A mouse? Seriously, that's creepy. A disease infested rodent is hanging out and doing his business on the mat that I spend 50% of my time at home on? Ewww. No, it's not a mouse, the droppings are too small . . . I look again - - - ugh, dropping size = mouse. Well, maybe it hangs out during the day, watches the place while were gone to keep other rodents out, brings his own food and entertainment to keep him busy and leaves when we get home (and just has an accident on the rug every now and then). I ask my roommates what makes them think that we have mice other than the poo (evidence A). "Well, a couple weeks ago, we noticed our bananas were being nibbled (Evidence B)." A COUPLE WEEKS AGO? WHAT? "And last week, the bag of rolls (that we ate completely) had a hole in it and those were nibbled on too (Evidence C). " Seriously? Okay, I know I'm a missionary and I'm willing to sacrifice. I know I have to deal with things that I'm not comfortable with, but mice aren't welcome to live with me.
So we still haven't seen evidence M (the mouse). I think it's a day or two after the "I think we have a mouse" bomb was dropped when I hear squealing, and screaming downstairs. I run down to see what the commotion is and I see two of my roommates on chairs and one in the kitchen with the broom in hand. Why are they screaming? "Sarah opened the cabinet to pull out the rice bag and the mouse JUMPED onto Sarah's leg." That instant, I joined the other roomies on the chair and added my squeals to the mix. Ewww. Sarah is the one with the broom in hand. She's the only roommate that probably could handle a mouse jumping on her (the rest of us would die of a heart attack). Where is it now? Where is it now? We think it squeezed between the wall and the cabinet (cabinet isn't fixed on the wall, it's a floor one - just to clarify so you don't think the mouse has super powers or something). We need to find a way to get it to go out the door, right? Okay, let's think about this rationally. We blocked it's way of getting into our living room, Sarah was standing with a broom ready to keep it from going back into the rest of our food prep area and Emily had the back door open. I was going to shut the bathroom door so it didn't have any other option but to go where we were forcing it to go. Where is a guy when you need him? Well, we're independent 20-something girls, we can handle it, can't we? Ugh, wrong. The mouse got spooked before I got to the bathroom door, the plan was ruined and the mouse runs into our bathroom, and we shut the door. It's locked in now, what we do? We wait. We leave it. We keep on watching fun Christmas movies that family sent from back in the states and we keep pretending it feels like Christmas (even though it doesn't). Just keep drinking your peppermint hot chocolate while the fan is pointed on you since it's still 80 degrees at 8pm at night and act like the mouse isn't there.
The bravest roommate - Sarah checked the bathroom that night and the mouse was gone. Gone? Where could it have gone? There's a small possibility it got out of the closed door if it shrunk itself. The biggest possibility is that it went down the shower drain (there's no cover on it and the bathroom has a toilet, sink and shower head and drain within the same small square- no ledge to separate on the floor). What if it decided to regurgitate from the drain (is that even possible and is regurgitate the right word in this situation)? The mouse is the reason I didn't brush my teeth that night. If I get a cavity the next time I go to the dentist, I'm suing. Okay, anyway, back to Creepy Mouse. That's when it was named. That night - our enemy became Creepy Mouse.
For a few days, we were jumpy to say the least. I refused to move the bag of rice. It took me days to use the toilet without holding me feet up and looking circles on the floor around me while I went. However, Creepy Mouse was still showing his evidence of living with us. We need to get a mouse trap. We need to get a mouse trap. Hmmm, why didn't we go get one? Episode #2 - I'm upstairs AGAIN and hear squealing and shrieking just like last time. What happened? "Sarah crouched down to move the rice and the mouse jumped on her chest then jumped on her leg and ran off." Seriously, why does this mouse have a personal vendetta against Sarah? Again, I hold to the fact that God knows Sarah's the only one who can handle it. Okay, positioned on chairs again. Ugh, Creepy Mouse. Go away! We even sung the song "O' Creepy Mouse, O' Creepy Mouse please get out of our hou-ou-ouse" to the tune of "O' Christmas Tree." What do we do? What do we do? SHUT THE BATHROOM DOOR. Done, perfect, now what? Make the same road blocks as last time. Opened the back door. Used the broom to spook the mouse . . . he ran in the direction of the back door, but none of us were sure that he left completely or if he detoured to going behind our fridge or behind the stove's gas tank on the floor.
The next day, we bought a mouse trap. The problem in Thailand is that they don't sell the wooden mouse traps with the metal spring snap where you put the little triangle of cheese on and then POW, bye bye mousey. They just sell poison or glue mats. Yes, glue mats. You can either plant poison around the house, have it eat it, run into a hiding place, die and then we find it weeks after it's been rotting. NO THANK YOU. Or you can do the "humane" thing and place some food on a plastic square that has glue on it and when the mouse goes for the food, they get stuck. The humane thing is that it just gets stuck and stays alive and then you can just pull it off the glue. Seriously? You think that even though I am unwilling to run after and capture the mouse when I see it, I'm willing to grasp it fully and unglue it? NO THANK YOU. So there we sit in the middle of the grocery store with the Thai people staring at us (as usual) as we contemplate being humane or inhumane. I'm not willing to do either separately, but I AM willing to do them both. Think about it, you put poison in the food that's on the glue pad and the mouse gets poisoned, stuck and it's dead. Sounds good, SOLD.
At 4 days of having the traps down, I'm doing the math. 4 days, 3 nights, 2 mouse "traps" and not 1 creepy mouse. I'm starting to think peanut butter and poison pie isn't his meal of choice. Ugh. I'm a little relieved we haven't caught him yet because Sarah (the brave one) isn't home this week since she's staying with her family who are visiting. So, if we do catch it, I have defaulted to be the one that takes care of dead Creepy Mouse.
6 days, 5 nights, 2 traps and we catch a . . . gecko. Awww, sorry poor gecko, we didn't want to hurt anyone else. I never thought peanut butter and poison would be tempting for the gecko. Grieved, okay over it . . . where's the freaking Creepy Mouse? I'm starting to think he's taken up residence somewhere else. This is okay, but every time I get comfortable with opening cabinet doors and bathroom doors, then he reappears. When will it end? (which is probably what you're saying about this story right now :-).
7th day . . . wake up to get coffee and my roommate Amy is doing her quiet time and she looks up at me like she's seen a ghost. "Um, we caught Creepy Mouse. I couldn't even bear to make coffee because I'd have to walk by him again." What do we do? And more importantly, how do we survive the day without our cup of Joe? So, I walk into the kitchen and peek my head around the corner and see him. Creepy Mouse doesn't look so big when he's glued to something and can't run around. He's laying down and his entire right side is glued down with his back to the peanut butter and poison pie awaiting him. I think he's dead though, he's not moving. I won't get close enough to check for sure. However, I remember my promise to Emily and Amy that I would suck it up and dispose of the mouse when/if we caught him when Sarah was gone. Quickly, I regret muttering those words. I can barely stand to peek around the counter for more than 5 seconds at a time. It's like I'm watching a scary movie where I don't want to look but I can't help it and then I see something freaky and I squeal. So, that's what I do. I run back to Amy, we grab each other’s shoulders, jump up and down and squeal. Emily comes down and it's like she had already eaten her Wheaties or something. She goes and stares it in the face and comes up with an immediate rational plan. Take the broom and push the plastic piece that holds the glued down Creepy Mouse out the door. Hmmm, why didn't I think of that? Well, I'll watch her do it and give her moral support. Amy can't watch and she starts to shriek. Oh, well, now we know Creepy Mouse isn't dead. Her shrieks reach decibels that the mouse apparently can hear and now he is using the unglued side of his body to react. His entire left side is pumping through the air with no where to go and he can't get unstuck. That's when I start to feel sorry for it. That's when Amy reminds me that Creepy Mouse is still creepy and we can't start having sympathy for something that we've been singing about killing for weeks. Right. Okay, Emily pushes him all the way to the garbage bags outside, is brave enough to pick up the plastic and throw him into all the other unwanted things that we put in that bag. Emily is our Hero and Creepy Mouse is meeting his sad fate.
So, Creepy Mouse is gone. I still have moments of sadness when I think of his helpless Mouskawitz face (totally reminded me of Fievel too) of being glued down. But then I remind myself that we don't need the diseases that he carries and we can't afford to feed him. So, I justify his death over and over again in my mind.
Okay, so the end. =)
As my roommates commented . . . they made sure I got more paint on the walls than I got on myself. :0)