R.I.P.

Today, I live in a mouse-free house.

Yes, it was a mouse that we had. 

Had.

Yesterday, Terminix came by to set new traps for my little rodenty friend.  He was outsmarting us on the glue boards.  I learned where he would go in the garage to eat, and moved all the glue boards into that area.  I set one on top of the bag of grass seed that he was feasting on.  I put two around the bag.  I found the hole that he would use to shimmy under the fence and into my yard, and I lined that hole with glue boards.  I would find them moved, but they wouldn't catch him.  He managed to move one of them more than a foot!

I showed my collection of evidence to Richard (my weekend Terminix guy.)  He's the same guy that put down the glue boards.  I told him that there probably wasn't much we could do in the back yard because of my dog.  But I had been keeping the dog out of the garage, so that area was fair game.  If he wanted to put down snap traps, I was all for it.  So he put two down and baited them with grass seed.  After I cleaned up all of the grass seed shells, he put one in the area that the rodent had been feasting, and another one near what the two of us had surmised was his point of entry...the door to the side yard.

Last night, I was in the garage taking care of laundry.  As I closed the dryer door, I heard a commotion on the other side of the garage...near the garage door.  I turned just in time to see something rodenty fall from about three quarters of the way up my garage door onto the floor.  Ah ha!  The point of entry!  No wonder he was cleverly avoiding the glue traps on the ground!  The little bastard was climbing the bamboo plant outside and squeezing in the door at the height of the bush!

This morning, I tentatively peered into the garage.  I checked trap number one...the one that was set near the side door.  No signs of activity.  I tippy toed to the area tht housed trap number two...near the site of the feasts.  I noticed that the trap had been triggered, but was empty!  I was aghast! How wiley is this little guy!   It took me a minute to get over the shock.  He managed to set off the trap and get away!!

Almost.

It was then that I noticed the trail of blood.  There were little spots of red that lead from the trap across the floor.  I looked and saw that the trail went under the lawn mower, but didn't appear to come out anywhere.  Tentatively, I leaned down and shined the beam of my flashlight under the lawn mower.  That's when I saw his tail.  I shuffled the lawn mower backwards to see if there would be any movement of the tail.  There was none.

We got our guy.

I called Terminix, and they're coming to remove him tomorrow.  Tonight, I took a second look under the lawn mower, just to make sure that he really was dead and hadn't crawled off somewhere else.  That was when I actually saw him...a little gray and white field mouse.  Not the rat that I had envisioned in my head.

When he's gone, I'll clean up the blood and remaining evidence of his visits.  I'll go ahead and approve the re-setting of the snap traps and bait them with food, just in case more mice know about my house. 

But we finally won.  He put up a good fight, but victory is finally mine.