Mice
Posted by Travis Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:59:00 GMT
For the last two to three weeks we’ve been trying to capture a couple of mice in our house. This is not fun.
Last week we caught the first one… it was in some special space age circular trap that rotates shut when it is sprung. Additionally, there is poison inside so you have to weigh the trap to be sure you actually caught something since you cant feel the dead mouse moving inside. It was great, Aki, Jax, and I took a moment to mourn the mouse and went out on a walk to celebrate.
For the last week, the second of these space age traps never was sprung despite refreshing the bait, moving it to a better location etc. This morning, back from our walk Jax almost caught it as it skittered through my feet to reside behind the refrigerator. I think it was trying to disrespect me so I called to have Aki pick up some glue traps on her way back from shopping.
An hour after I laid down the glue trap we heard the disparate squeak of humiliation from the arrogant little bastard.
Jax, Yoshi, Aki and I stood in the kitchen watching it struggle trying to figure out what to do with it.
Me: “Man… I have so much respect for the bastard, I kinda want him to live on… too bad we have to kill him”
Aki: “Eww”
Yoshi: “How are you going to kill it?”
Me: “I don’t know, I guess we could drown it.”
Yoshi: “Do you have a hammer?”
Me: “We’re not going to hammer it, that would be messy.”
Aki: “Eww”
Yoshi: “We can wrap it in newspaper first, then hammer it.”
Me: “We are not going to hammer it.”
Yoshi: “Check the internet, maybe there is a good way to kill it.”
Me: “I guess I could put it in the trashcan, fill it with water… Or perhaps I could drown it in alcohol.” as I start to look for some cheap Vodka since drowning in alcohol sounds better then drowning in water.
Jax just watches this scene, if he had some initiative he could just resolve the whole situation. Instead he just watches us with an expression of amusement. Jax ran away from a cat two weeks ago when we took him to a house party… I’m still being teased about it.
Yoshi: “How about this?” He holds up some good Belgian beer… I shake my head.
After realizing we don’t have any cheap liqueur I come to my senses and start to empty the trash can. The reality of how unpleasant this is going to be begins to dawn on me. Aki is watching a Japanese comedy show in the living room.
Yoshi: “We can set it on fire.” I pause, looking at him unsure if he is serious… “Really, I’ve done it before.” I’m suddenly aware I need to get him to stop coming up with ideas, so I take one of his earlier suggestions.
I google for “mouse glue trap kill”. Among the dozens of platitudes indignantly explaining how I’m subhuman for using the traps in the first place, I find an article on how to extract a mouse from the trap.
I ask Aki for some vegetable oil and chopsticks, she makes a sound of annoyance, pauses her TV show and finds me my requested ingredients. She goes back to the couch and I make a mental note to bring this incident up the next time she tries to claim I don’t help out with house work. “Quality, not quantity” I think to myself.
Jax watches carefully as I use the chopsticks to pick up the mouse and place him and the trap in the trash can. Once in the can, I saturate him and the trap with vegetable oil.
Moments later I’m walking down the stairs of our back deck, trashcan in hand, and he gets himself free of the trap. He jumps up and nearly grabs hold of my hand. I walk quickly to the back fence, drop the trash can and kick the bottom of it. An oily mouse scurries under the fence.
I wonder if that’s the last one.
生後7週間
裏庭の木の下で
デッキの椅子の下で