MOUSE TRAPPED?!?! (updated) -- it's not a mouse...

(trap that never sprung. cheese is missing.)

It's a rat.

This blog entry was originally posted on 9/20/07 Thursday morning, but now I am updating it. Below is an online chat I had with my high school friend Mark Miller (ultimate frisbee extraodinaire, of course he probably doesn't want to be defined by just one thing) during a mouse incident on Wednesday night. The next morning Thursday, I wasn't sure if I had the mouse under the bucket. But one of the sweepers helped me open the outside door and get ready, just in case. It wasn't there, but there was new poo on the kitchen table. That day, the school declared a "fair weather holiday" in celebration of the end of monsoon season, and so I had time to go the bazaar to buy three mouse traps. When I came home and opened the bathroom door, the rat was there! And it scurried away. I set the traps.

Laura, please don't read this whole thing and please don't click on the link below. You will be upset. Anybody in general, please understand that I was really trying to go the humane way. I tried buckets, toilet paper rolls, and a cage. Live face offs. The mouse was just too big, and invading my life. It's already annoying to have a mouse at home. It's worse when you're in a foreign country and all you want to do is be safe. It was competing for my home away from home, that I'm trying to establish. I'm just rationalizing it, but that's one explanation. I still feel bad about it, but if you want to see what happened this Friday morning, CLICK HERE. Warning, NOT FOR THE EASILY SQUEAMISH!!!

(the cage and bucket that didn't work)

Online Chat with Mark Miller:

10:21 AM me: hey mark! just to let you know, the mouse stole my soap. my bar of facial soap was gone this morning.
Mark: amazing
me: again, i'm about to go to sleep. i just got back from hanging out with my neighbors, but I wanted to let you know!
Mark: lol - thanks :-)
me: yeah, I told my students that if they can invent a trap to get the mouse, I will give them a prize.
Ok, good night!
10:22 AM Mark: lol - good night

40 minutes

11:02 AM me: oh my gosh!
i had to get back online and report it!
Mark: What?
11:03 AM did the mouse climb into bed with you and snuggle?
me: i was flossing...
no, it was more exciting than that.
Mark: you used the dental floss as a garrote wire?
me: i wish!
the mouse came into the bathroom.
actually, i'm not sure, it may be a rat, the body was like 6" long
Mark: damn!
11:04 AM me: Yeah, I know.
It came in to get more soap.
probably
I yelled at it.
it left
Mark: lol
me: when I finished flossing, I looked outside the bathroom, and it was in the hall!
so I followed it
Mark: what hap-ki-do technique did you use to yell at it?
me: ki-hop!!!!
11:05 AM Mark: haha
me: it went into the kitchen, heh heh, i was just kidding about ki-hop, but it was close!
it wasn't a scared yell, it was a "get the hell out of here!" yell!
Mark: did you get your kitchen knives and use it as target practice?
me: more like, "hey!"
i wish!
11:06 AM you know, I only have 1 dinky knife that was left here, but I bought 2 more butter knives yesterday at the bazaar along with the trap that doesn't catch
so then I was in the kitchen, like, dude, let me get the trap from the locked living room and put some cheese in it!
Mark: maybe you need a bigger trap
me: yeah, I think so!
11:07 AM so I was getting the trap and doing the cheese, and then I saw it scurry from the kitchen back into the hallway room
the hallway room is inbetween the kitchen and the bathroom.
Mark: have an hair spray? They make great flame throwers. :-P
yeah
me: by then, I had already closed the door leading to my bathroom.
oh, good idea! heh heh!
and I had closed the door leading to my bedroom.
11:08 AM and then...we had a face off!!!
Mark: always a good choice.
me: every time it moved, I countered.
i grabbed my laundry bucket.
but it kept getting behind a cabinet.
sometimes, I almost cornered it!
Mark: lol - too bad you don't have a golf club.
FORE!!!!
11:09 AM me: yeah, I know! my trekking poles were in the other room!
yeah!
And then it scurried into the kitchen!
so I went back and opened the cabinet and saw it inside.
then it went to the refrigerator and kind of took a leisurely stroll wandering around. I couldn't get the big bucket in those spaces!
11:10 AM My hands were shaking, and I could hear my heart beating.
I'm still not over it.
Mark: lol
so it got away?
me: And I was thinking to myself, "this is my opportunity to practice my hapkido breathing".
yeah, well, so then, it went back into the hallway room again.
And we had another face off!!!
Maybe for about 3 minutes.
Finally, it won again and went back into the kitchen.
11:11 AM Picture me holding a little tub thing ready to pounce on it, and being all adrenaline pumped.
it was like playing paintball.
Mark: Hah!
me: yeah, I know!
And then I finished the mouse trap -- the cage. put it down.
11:12 AM put a little cloth over it.
And I didn't know what to do.
So I closed the door to my kitchen which the mouse can get under.
I put a bucket trap there, which it fell for the first time but hasn't since. But oh well!
GAME ON!!!!!!!!!!!
11:13 AM Mark: when you said that it fell, do you mean that it may have caught the mouse?
me: The bad news is, if I catch it, I might have to drown it.
Oh yeah, the first time, I set the bucket trap, the mouse took the bait in about 10 minutes, but the bucket didn't fall down all the way.
Mark: yeah! I think Michael Vick has a training video for that.
me: You can see it on my blog, heh heh!
Mark: ah
I think I did see it.
me: I don't know who Michael Vick is!
11:14 AM Mark: he used to play football for the atlanta falcons
me: Anyway, it's 45 minutes after my bedtime, and I'm occupied with a mouse!
oh, he catches mice? i'm confused!
Mark: he got busted for and admitted he ran a dog fighting ring
me: oh, okay?
Mark: when dogs lost, or weren't any good, they would drown them
11:15 AM me: oh! heh heh!
I really don't want to drown it. Well, I guess I have to catch it first.
Mark: yeah
me: I'm afraid to go use my bathroom!
Mark: Do it Mob style
me: I put one soap in the fridge, and the other soap on a shelf, I don't think it can get to.
Yeah, mob style!
what's that?
Mark: tie it to a cynderblock and drop it into a river!
11:16 AM me: heh heh!
Oh!!!! I just heard the bucket!!!!!!
Mark: Check it out! Report back!
11:17 AM me: AHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Mark: Didn't catch it, eh?
me: I just checked the bucket! But there was nothing under, I think!
But then I heard a clank, and then I heard the mouse crying!!!
I don't want to look!!!
Mark: can you pick it up without opening up the bottle for it to escape?
me: I can barely type!
Mark: bottle == bucket
11:18 AM use your ninja breathing technique!
me: Oh, it's not in the bucket. it went to the bucket first, and then must have escaped into the cage.
oh shit.
okay, back in a jiffy.
11:19 AM Freakin' a!
it's totally in the cage!!!
Hold on, let me take a picture.
I hate the sound it's making!
It's freaking out!
Mark: sweet!
11:20 AM drop the cage into the river!
11:24 AM me: I freakin' don't know what happened!
11:25 AM Mark: What do you mean? Has it escaped?
me: I went to take a picture, and then the mouse freaked out and was so big for the cage, that it just pushed its head through.
Yeah, I turned my camera on and was ready to take the picture, and it got out!
Mark: damnit!
11:26 AM me: I freaked out and yelled (warrior style of course) and quickly put my bucket over the cage and the cloth, but I don't know if it got away or not. it was half way out. the tail was injured.
Right now, my bucket is in the kitchen with a thing of water on it, but I don't know if it's heavy enough. I don't even know if the mouse is inside.
I heard some noises behind the sink, so it may have escaped.
Mark: oi vey
11:27 AM me: To top it off, I looked in the sink, and there was a giant spider in there!!!
Mark: lol
put the mouse and the spider together for a death match!
me: yeah!
Mark: You able to get a cat?
me: oh well.
I have no more traps, and I'm afraid to lift the bucket.
Yeah, Julie recommended that.
I may have to borrow one.
Mark: hehe
11:28 AM Do you have a sheet of plywood or something you can slide under the bucket etc so you can pick it up and drop it into the river? :-P
me: Dang, and I didn't even get a good picture!
11:29 AM I have a piece of cardboard, but the problem is, they can chew through cardboard, and it's probably out of the cage by now, and I don't even know if it's under the bucket!
Maybe I should leave some soap out tonight and see if it disappears.
11:30 AM Mark: if it does, you may have two mice.
11:31 AM me: ah, no math problems! one is enough for me!
I may have to rely on the cleverness of my students. I don't think a cage is going to work anymore.
11:32 AM Mark: yeah, the one you have is too small.
er big
11:33 AM why not get some of that king nettle :-P
me: heh heh! I bet the mouse's fur protects it against that! then it would rub the king nettle all over my stuff and give me king nettle.
Mark: lol
me: maybe it needs some other kind of weed.
ha ha
Mark: maybe, but if you put it in the food
11:34 AM me: Ha ha, maybe it's poison I need. Laura, my former boss, would hate me.
Poisonous soap.
Ok, well, thanks for sharing in the excitement and cheering me on!
It's past midnight here, and way past my bedtime!
11:35 AM All doors are shut. Evacuation mode ready. Orange alert!
Ok, talk to you later!
Mark: good night!
me: good morning, or soon afternoon to you! Talk to you later!