EEK! A MOUSE!
He had eluded me for over a week. Taunted me even. More than once I saw him sitting on top of the round, black, peanut butter filled canister traps I'd set, munching on a crumb or two. The look in his eye said he'd be flipping me off if he could.
He was a smart one, that ninja mouse. Never once did he appear tempted to wander into one of those peanut butter paradises and get zipped around in a fun house of doom. He just scurried around the room, keeping his distance and making darn sure we had plenty of face time. Every night after the kids were tucked in their beds and we would settle down for some TVing in the living room, ninja mouse would wander out and hang with us. Though any small movement would send him fleeing for cover. Once I startled him so thoroughly that he sproinged straight up in the air from a standstill.
That's when everything changed for me. I wasn't bothered by him like most women are. I thought he was cute. Not that I wanted to keep him around by any means but he didn't really freak me out. His speed sometimes made my heart flutter in a brief panic, but for the most part I could breath easy around him. Even if he was watching TV with me. When I realized he could leap straight up in the air though? That's freaky.
Hubby had finally had enough, however, and today I was charged with going to the store and buying "real" mouse traps. You know, the ones that our parent's used? The ones that break fingers while you are trying to bait them? Yeah, I didn't buy those. Instead I bought the ones that look like giant fat clothes pins. The bait is set out in the open and the little fella just walks right up and dies. Hubby was skeptical and a little annoyed that I went for yet another new-fangled, unproven contraption. But I have memories of those old fashioned ones. Bad, bad memories. They haunt me.
So tonight I set two of the clothes pin traps. I placed one right near the little hole where I deduced he lived and the other was placed right under the dining room table where he liked to take his meals.
About ten minutes after the traps were set, Hubby had to go run an errand.
About ten minutes after Hubby left, I heard a noise.
I looked over to the trap in the corner and saw the rear view of ninja mouse, his neck and head pinched tightly. Or so I thought....
No sooner did I realize the mouse was caught than it took off running around the house with the trap stuck to it's head. It ran backwards towards me, dragging the trap along with it. I might have squealed as I leapt for the phone and called Hubby's cell. Then I heard the distinctive, annoying ring of that cell about three feet away from me. He'd left his phone. Of course he had.
I squealed again as I leapt over the mouse trap/mouse situation and headed for the kitchen phone book. I dialed the number of the house I knew Hubby was at and tried to control my panic while he was being called to the phone. Hubby (and everyone else at the house) had a good laugh as I described the horror that was unfolding all around me. "It's chasing me."
"I'll be home in ten minutes."
I opted NOT to freak out and tell him to come home RIGHT THE HECK NOW and got off the phone calmly.
Ninja mouse and his new hat chased me around the dining room area for about two more minutes before he just petered out. I think he died then, but I wasn't about to go check it out just so he could sproing straight up in the air and attack me. He is after all, a ninja mouse, capable of anything.
Hubby made it home shortly after that though and he took the lifeless (he checked) body outside to the trash. I watched as he calmly un-pinched the body and let it drop into an empty milk jug and placed it in the trash.
Goodnight mouse.