Next, they’ll ask for some milk!
….
My partner and I paused the television and exchanged glances, then looked towards the stove. We listened for a moment to the small scratching sounds.
“That sounds like a creature,” I said.
“Yeah…”
We approached with caution, first putting on shoes and arming ourselves with old crutches. My partner took the drawer out from under the stove and we peered in with a flashlight, standing a good distance back. But we didn’t see anything.
He shrugged and fitted the drawer back into the slot.
“Maybe it was the neighbors, like we’re hearing their pet scratching on the wall?” I wondered aloud, since that was the wall adjoining to the other condo next to us.
My partner agreed that was possible. We went back to eating and watching our show.
It wasn’t long before we heard it again. A scratching, pattering noise, like little claws hitting and scratching the hard floor.
We paused again.
“That is definitely a small creature,” we both said.
Again, we took the shelf out but nothing was there. Curious, indeed.
A short while later, we finally caught it in the act. I was in the other room when my partner rushed in.
“There’s a mouse!”
“There is?!” I jumped up from my seat in excitement.
“It was under the stove where we heard it, trying to get the ant baits. I took them away though,” he informed me. I nodded in approval. “I ordered a mouse trap online,” he continued.
“Aw, no.”
“It doesn’t kill it. It’s a live trap.”
“Oh nice!”
“It’s so cute. You’ll see when we catch it.”
….
The next day, the trap arrived. A small, blue plastic tube-like thing with a flat bottom, holes in the top and sides for air. One door was human-operated and you’d slide it into place beforehand and then slide it up and out to release the mouse afterwards. The other door was trap-activated, and hinged on a spring. Once you push it down and put the top of the door under the trap platform, opening the entrance, when even the tiniest amount of weight pressed the platform down the door would snap closed.
We slathered some peanut butter on a teeny piece of bread and set it at the back of the trap. We placed the trap by the wall at the back of the stove. Now we just needed to wait.
“This mouse stands no chance,” my partner said gleefully. I laughed.
“I guess we’ll see.”
….
The next day we checked the trap. My partner peered under the stove with a flashlight.
“Wait a minute… the peanut butter is gone, but there’s no mouse!” he exclaimed.
We took the trap out to examine it. Indeed, the trap had not been triggered, and the bread had been discarded, but the peanut butter was licked clean.
“That’s so hilarious,” I laughed. “We were outsmarted by a mouse.”
“How did he do that?!”
We stared at it, deep in thought.
“Maybe he reached forward and took the bread without going far enough in to get on the trigger,” I suggested.
“Yeah. He could’ve bumped it and made the bread move a little, too.”
“Hm, yes,” I agreed, visualizing a little scheming mouse nudging the container to get at the treat.
“Alright, new plan,” my partner said. He proceeded to place a glob of peanut butter directly onto the back of the trap.
We placed the trap again.
“Alright, this time, I’m confident we’ll catch him. Soon, there will be a little mouse in that little mouse house.”
I laughed. “I have more confidence this will work but I don’t know, maybe he’ll find a way around this too.”
“No, no way. We’ll catch him.”
….
Later that day, as we’re sitting at our desks working, we hear a loud *clack* sound.
“That’s it! We got him!”
We rushed over and again peered under the stove with a flashlight. A little mouse was indeed in that little mouse house.
“That was so fast, oh my gosh,” my partner said.
“He saw nothing bad happened the first time so he grew over-confident.”
“He didn’t know. He had no idea.”
“He’s so lucky he ended up in our house. He didn’t get any poison or death traps, he got some nice peanut butter snacks instead,” I chuckled.
“He’s been eating like a mouse king. Or actually, I bet a mouse king wouldn’t even eat this good.”
“Ha, yeah. He’s living the life.”
“I’ve got a meeting soon so we’ll take him outside after that,” my partner said.
“Sounds good.”
….
In the meantime, I did some research. Where should we put him, what should we do when we release him… all questions that needed answering.
In the end, I came to these conclusions:
Release the mouse at least two miles away from our home.
Release him in the wilderness with lots of bushes and plants for hiding in and near a water source.
Sprinkle some seeds around when we release him so he doesn’t have to frantically search for food in a new place and can get acquainted with the area.
Make sure we’re following guidelines and laws for our area for releasing a wild mouse (i.e., don’t release it in a wildlife preserve or something).
….
As you’d expect in an area that’s half desert, half coastline, it suddenly started pouring rain. Heavy sheets of water just dumping onto the ground. So unfortunately, we had to postpone the release of our little mouse friend until the next day.
In the meantime, we soaked some chia seeds in water and carefully inserted them into the trap using a spoon, to provide both water and nutrients.
It wasn’t ideal, and we’d like to have released him right away, but we figured it would be pretty terrible for the little guy if we just dumped him out in the rain in an unfamiliar area. We wanted to relocate him, not drown him. (And later we learned there was actually some flooding nearby, so probably the right call.)
….
Finally, it was time to say goodbye. We ended up putting some chia seeds into a blob of peanut butter instead of just sprinkling the seeds on the ground, because why shouldn’t he get a little extra peanut butter for the road? He needed a little mouse starter pack, of course.
We picked up his little mouse house, loosely wrapped in a towel to decrease visibility and stress while allowing airflow, and began our final journey with this mouse.
The sun was rapidly declining below the horizon. We drove to a park with a fair bit of wilderness around it.
Since mice are nocturnal, and most active at dawn and dusk, we figured sunset would be the perfect time to release him, especially since he was just asleep the whole day.
We put the chia seeds and peanut butter ball onto the ground under a bush off the side of a little trail in an expanse of wilderness, slid open the door of the trap, and watched as our mouse buddy perked up and zoomed right out and into the bush, near the peanut butter and chia seeds. It was difficult to see under the bush so we’ll just have to assume he got his treat.
We hope that little mouse likes its new home, and can get by well enough. We did see some rabbits nearby in the park above the trail, indicating the area was survivable for small animals.
As we headed home, we expressed our relief at having finally released the poor mouse. What started out as an exciting adventure became an unfortunate circumstance, as we couldn’t release him as soon as we wanted. But we did the best we could under the circumstances and gave the mouse the best chance to survive… just not in our home.
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