Of Mice and... Me?

Of mice and... Me?

So everyone who knows me, knows I've lived in some interesting places. When I moved back to Halifax in the winter of 2010 I moved in with three girls who were very lovely and progressive. Unfortunately I also moved in with mice. One morning we awoke to discover that a mouse had chewed clear through a loaf of bread and so my room mates agreed to get mouse traps. I found the first dead mouse and disposed of it without incident. They found the second dead mouse and insisted on removing the traps.

In the autumn of 2011 in Ottawa I moved into a place, again with three girls, probably better described as young professionals then as progressive. In this instance we had an infestation of pantry moths.

When I looked at the apartment I'm in now one of my first questions was whether there had been any problems with infestations. No. Of course not.

In May, one month after moving in I started hearing scratching and running and discovered that squirrels had invaded my crawlspace. I informed my land lady who called an exterminator. I thought that was the end of it.

Last Thursday I found evidence of mice when I woke up in the morning, I optimistically thought it was a lone mouse passing through. When I returned home in the evening I discovered that they were not just passing through and that in fact they had defficated over my clean dishes. This was 5 minutes before I was expecting dinner guests. In a blind panic I then turned and watched as a tubby mouse waddled across the floor.

So I cleaned, I cooked dinner, cleaned some more and set traps. The next day there was less evidence of the mice, and less still Saturday morning. On Saturday night, returning from Swing Dance and I found what I hoped was the lone mouse dead in the trap. The next morning I awoke to discover that all of the blossoms had been eaten off my African violets by another mouse. I guess they were getting angry because I cut off their food supply. Later in the morning I saw another mouse waddle across the floor and called my landlady who informed me it was too expensive to call the exterminator a second time and had the audacity to ask me if I wanted to renew my lease.

No more mice were caught.

Last night (Monday) I got home late from karaoke, read and went to sleep only to be woken up by some motion near my hand at 1:30. I moved my hand only to realize there was a mouse at the foot of my bed. I turned on the light, waited, and went back to sleep. I was woken up again at 4:45 in the morning and this time I saw the mouse right away, again at the foot of my bed. I flipped. I couldn't go back to sleep knowing I was being stalked by a hungry mouse. So I tidied my room and watched the sun rise. Unfortunately I hadn't had enough sleep to go to work so I didn't and took things into my own hands. I bought mouse poison which I set out and promptly left the apartment. I returned two hours late to watch a mouse eating the poison from my bed. This of course made me feel sad for the mouse, but optimistic about a good night sleep.

Later this evening I was at home and discovered that at some point the mice also started to eat plastic lid to one of my food containers and the aluminum plate in my stove top, which is more than somewhat unnerving.

And now I have to go home and try to sleep somewhat comfortably while wondering whether the mice are still alive, and if so, what they will eat next.