Capturing a Mouse and Shop-Giving

With my one and half year old son, duly by my side, last Thursday, an errant mouse had entered our apartment. We keep our windows closed -, so that sets up for a potential hole somewhere in the apartment - where, I am not sure. It was not so much the setting down of the glue traps that made me nervous or concerned, it was the fact that mice carry viruses specifically the hantavirus which can cause asthma in small children and I know was affecting my respiratory system. I was on a mission to get that mouse. How is hantavirus caused - who knows, but it comes with those cute things called mice. None which will ever be welcomed in my humble abode. The first night, Thursday, when we spotted the mouse, it was moving so slow across the living space to underneath my desk in the foyer (yes, our apartment is that small - but well organized), that I thought I could just smack it and stun it and then put it back outside or in front of any of my complaining neighboring apartments who have complained about us leaving our son's big wheel outside of the night). Anyhow, upon positive identification, I had nothing in sight to whack the mouse, and in my hysteria (not about the mouse - I am ok with getting rid of rodents), the hysteria of the potential health effects (current or latent) that it may occur, the mouse disappeared, most likely into the bedroom. I was so angry that I went on tirade and started to further organize the apartment - so in this case, the invasion of the rodent was actually a small blessing in disguise. I went out to dinner, by myself, to cool down and plotted my strategy. I needed time to think. Well, the next morning, I had laid out at least 15 glue traps with what my wife had found as n alleged obvious mouse lure to put on the traps, almond butter. We figured it was a NYC mouse, it won't go for just JIFs or Skippys, we needed a step up, something gourmet. By Saturday, I was incredibly frustrated. The mouse not only did not go for the sweet smelling almond butter, but it had harden up making it not only less of an attraction to the mouse but it just looked gross. In my efforts to teach my son to conserve energy and keep the world a safer place and cleaner place, I have gone on a mission to recycle whatever bottle that I use. I look at all water bottles as 5 c. now. I have probably brought back at least $50 dollars worth of bottles over time which I put the proceeds in his college fund. It's not the amount, or even the time it takes me to take back the bottles (of note, you have to take the bottles back especially if they are stored label, CVS, Rite Aid Water, etc. to the same store - so it can take some time) Anyhow, I stopped off at my closest Grocers who actually sends one of their attendants to watch you to put the bottles in to make sure you are not trying to sneak one in that is not ONE that they take - its sort of like the reverse of shoplifting - its shopgiving and in this case, you can't give back to the shop, bottles that they don't take. So, I had 20 bottles - they took about 11, I then saw a few were clearly CVS' seltzer and Rite Aid...so off I went to CVS, and then I went next, with another 5 bottles finally Rite Aid, and one bottle that was a freebie (that just went into a recycling bin). I tell you this, not to share with you mind numbing extensive experience to get back $1 for your child's kid fund, but to let you know, then when capturing mouse, you need to get outside and think especially if it has been more than two days since positive identification of spotting one in your apartment. While my son is only one and half, I thought it was OK to buy the traps that snaps off their head - I have to admit, I was mad, I was feeling a bit defeated, I am typically, in the past in past apartments, a pretty good mouse catcher, in under two hours, no mouse that has entered any premise that I currently or once resided, ever made it to the next day - this one had not only made it to the next day but was hosting on all kinds of things most likely and spreading potentially disease and destruction in the future. So, I found these different kind of traps that traps the mouse and at the same time, were my son to investigate it, it would not snap off his finger or any part of his hand or toe/foot and I placed them strategically next to the glue traps - I figured if the trap did not work, and the mouse nibbled on the trap that did not click, he would then fall into the glue trap in trying to escape what he thought was a pretty good maneuver - in short, you had to set up two lines of defense to out think the mouse - never, never underestimate your opponent even if, yes, it's a mouse. I also bought taco bell packet of cheese. All at Rite Aid and I bought sugar wafers (I need some comfort food as I had up to that point failed to capture the mouse - wafers make me feel good). I figured perhaps he likes just plain gooey cheese and that is what I would use next. I arrived home and I put the cheese on top of all the harden now wasted almond butter and reset all the traps. Sunday morning came, I excitedly woke up to look at all the traps and of course, the mouse was not to be found. My son then tried to climb down the bed (inside the bed) from the headboard and that is when my wife demanded that she heard scurrying. I leaped up - You mean to tell me, I said to my wife, that the mouse has the audacity to sleep with the family too - he knew no bounds. I was irate. Yet, to my wife's credit, the bedroom with music going and cardboard boxes to munch on underneath the bed, made for a four season suite for a mouse. If I were a mouse, I'd probably head for underneath the bed too - at least in this apartment. Well, now I went about and set up triple lines of defense of mouse traps around the sideboards of the bed (away from my son so he could not touch them). I was so certain that if the mouse was underneath the bed, I would get him. We then left the apartment to go to an indoor kids' concert. Upon return, I checked the bedroom, no mouse. I actually then lifted up the mattress and the box spring and looked physically underneath the bed - NO mouse..there was really no where else to hide. The mouse was either there and had moved cleverly or was not there, never was there, at some point there, but now was somewhere else. I was miffed. I laid down a new line of defense in the kitchen. At this point, I had surmised that if the mouse was anywhere he was in the live space or kitchen behind the stove so I laid out traps on both side of the stove. We went to my brother-in-law's for dinner. I came home. I was so exhausted, I went to sleep on the couch. Around 4AM Monday morning, my son wakes for his mid-morning milk feeding. I know why Dad's go bald now. I go to the kitchen and I see the mouse has been caught. I was ecstatic. I rushed our oson back to his mother and got him milk and took pictures to show it was caught for management (to ensure that they did not think I was bluffing) As an aside, management rarely believes anything by a tenant and vica-versa until they have to believe. Pictures don't lie. I am not convinced that there may be others and I am certain the back of the stove needs to be holed up - exterminators coming on Tuesday. I guess the way that the mouse was caught tells me he came back into the kitchen because he was going into the direction to go back underneath the stove as oppose leaving from the stove to hunt for more food. All this makes me sick inside because my number one priority is to maintain a clean and healthy environment for my son and for three days we had this mouse holding us hostage in our own apartment making it inhabitable. If we lived on a farm, ok, but we don't. As, I put my son back to bed, he did say for the first time, in much less garble, Goodnight Dad. And a book that I read to him often, Good Night Moon, has a section that says, "good night mouse in it" -- so, I will conclude instead with good bye, mouse.