Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Randy to the Rescue

It's fall in Oregon, the rains have begun, and as always, the mice are moving in. Just a few minutes ago I heard a mouse scratching in my wastebasket/broom cupboard, which is one place they like to hang out, along with the pantries.

They don't normally venture into other parts of the house, but yesterday I saw a fat mouse scuttle through the office, and later I saw it dash from the closet in our bedroom to the skirt around the bed. Horrors.

So I set a trap in the closet and at bedtime it still wasn't caught. I reset the trap in the office and went to bed with horrible visions of a mouse getting up on the bed at night, into my hair, etc etc, not a good chain of thoughts to induce sleep.

The boys checked the trap this morning. Still no mouse.

After the children left for school I checked again and yes! this time a mouse was caught. But to my horror the mouse, caught to the shoulders in the trap, suddenly started humping and hopping around.

Shaking, I scuttled to the kitchen. Paul and the younger boys were at school, Matt was way off in Corvallis. Who could I call? Uncle James? I felt too silly. Maybe TJ, one of our employees. But I couldn't find his cell number.

Aha! Randy! He is Paul's nephew and works at the pellet mill just down the road. I called his number. Sure, he'd put just a few more scoops in and then he'd be right down.

A few minutes later Randy came running up the sidewalk. I pointed him in the right direction and soon he went outside, trap in hand, and did the dreadful deed.

Grinning, he brought the trap inside and I gave him a bag of monster cookies and thanked him profusely. And he went back to work.

If anyone out there--potential employer, possible girlfriend, private investigator, whatever--needs a reference for Randy's character, just come to me.

Quote of the Day:
"If I didn't know better I'd think he was pregnant."
--Matt, after Steven made a bagel-scrambled egg-cheese-chocolate cake-ketchup sandwich for breakfast on Saturday


(edited to add: here's a picture of Randy. Just fyi, he's 23. He looked a bit more scrubbed and polished at his brother's wedding)

9 comments:

  1. I'm impressed...how old did you say he was again?!;)*laugh*

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  2. Poor mouse!!:)

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  3. Oh--you are just like me!! I just cannot handle mice--ick!!We live in the country too so we get our share and my hubby now has to deal with them since my boys are adults now and live elsewhere...I run for cover anytime they appear!
    Wishing you a mice-less autumn!

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  4. You set the trap! I am impressed. My horror of mice is so huge I don't even touch a trap, set or unset. I don't know what will happen if I ever run out of males in the house to take care of that detail.

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  5. When we lived in rural Colorado, the mice were a big problem! I remember them avoiding the traps no matter what food I had placed in there to entice them! Finally had to resort to poison which I hate since you don't know where they're going to drop dead at. Sure enough, one died in the floor register vent somewhere and for 2 weeks we had the lovely aroma of decayed mouse as warm air blew over it ingulfing the house. BLECH!
    Connie

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  6. I had a mouse problem in my laundry room and started trapping them...after about 10 dead mice I felt pretty good about my abilities...until one day I came home to find my 2 traps had 2 babies that were so small they fit INSIDE the traps and were both trying to wiggle their heads out through the front end. WHAT TO DO? (I'm single.) I didn't know how to kill the poor things myself. My only conclusion was finally that I should let the mice out of the traps, in the backyard. The next day, sure enough, they revisited the traps and were properly caught and killed. After that I went back to shakily checking my traps each day.

    BTW, I was told that for large entry holes you can stuff them with steel wool and it will keep the mice out.

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  7. I belong to the mouse-haters club. One day a long time ago I even had my husband come home from work to empty a trap. He was not impressed! Pauline

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  8. on the qotd. if i didn't know better, i'd say he was matt's brother.
    r.c.

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  9. No mice at our house, we have a cat. Ann

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