It's NOT Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House

We have mice! Yuck! Stupid rodents. With all the construction and remodeling somewhere they've found a way into the house. Hobbes, our big useless cat, chased one this morning and had it cornered and stopped inches from catching it. He didn't know what to do. Since then he's been guarding the spot where it took refuge under the kitchen cabinets.

I guess in the future I'll have to use Hobbes in the role of a Pointer dog. He'll point the mouse out and I'll have to blast it with my gun, or Shane's BB gun. Which we did use once to kill a mouse, but it was too slow and painful of a death for even me to want to inflict on a mouse again.

I've set a trap, but I really need to get some sticky traps or something. You'd think with all the technology we would have come up with a better way to get rid of rodents by now. I get so nervous setting the "snap" traps. I could never work on a bomb squad. And although I feel sticky traps are more effect it is pretty lousy that the mouse doesn't die. So then there is the problem of what to do with a live mouse. This is where the BB gun came in one time. Or I guess I can peel them off and throw them to the cats.

I did have one incident, years ago, where a cat ate the mouse off the tray. Disgusting but so funny. I got up to find a glue covered cat with a mouse tail stuck to one side of their head and the glue trap stuck to the other. I washed, lotioned and shaved the cat all in an attempt to get the glue off. The entire time poor kitty was actually burping. I've never heard a cat burp before or since, but it sounds a lot like a regular burp. I guess mouse a' la glue doesn't go down too smooth.

Sadly oh so sadly my best mouser cat Calvin 2 disappeared this weekend. I don't know where he went. He didn't get hit on the road. I suspect he might have crawled on or in a vehicle and taken a ride. He was always looking for a car to climb on. Sigh... I really liked him.


It's 7 am, and I just put Lil' Vance on the bus for one of the last times. The last day of school is Friday. But Friday is only a 2 hour day so he'll probably only go tomorrow. The end of his school days is very bitter sweet for me. I won't really miss the early morning getting ready for school or having to rush home to meet the bus in the afternoon. But the lack of school presents its own problems. Namely, what will Lil' Vance do now??? Answers. No not really.

Blake has been such a busy boy lately, crawling, crawling everywhere. I've been shopping for baby gates. In my wildest imaginings I can't see the boy's rooms ever being baby proofed. So that end of the house will have to be gated off. As soon as we get the door in to the laundry room I'm going to have to move Duchess and her food and water bowls out there. Blake makes a beeline for them every time. He mostly wants to play in the water.

He also learned to wave last Thursday. Something he's very proud of. It just tickles me to no end. His right arm waves up and down like he's working on one armed flight. While his left arm waves back and forth like he's practicing his wave for Miss America. So so cute!

So for today it looks like I need to go shopping for mouse traps and baby gates. Plus mow the yard (again! already!), send off some pictures, and mud the dry wall in my closet. I know. Way too much it will never all get done in one day. At least it is another beautiful summer like day.