I blogged about this a couple of years ago but I can't find it now so I'll recap it here. Its relevance will become clear later.
Many years ago, I was sitting in our quiet kitchen and heard a tiny scratching in the vicinity of our kitchen closet. I couldn't see anything in the closet and the cats didn't catch anything over the next day or two, so I assumed the critter - if that's what it was - had made its way out the same way it had made its way in.
I was wrong.
Two weeks later, I started noticing a peculiar and not very pleasant odour in the closet whenever it was opened. That's when I realized the poor critter had died in the space between the walls. After crying for its sad end, I took everything out of the closet and waited for the smell to dissipate. Which it did, in the fullness of time.
Time during which I pictured the poor little corpse slowly drying up and leaving behind a poor little skeleton.
My husband examined the exterior of the house to try to find the entry point for the critter, but if you've ever see how small a mouse can be, and how much smaller it can make itself to get through or under something, you'll realize what an impossible job that was. But he found a few possible holes and filled them with expansion filler.
Alas, it all happened all over again a year or two later. Husband went around again with the expansion filler and sealed even the tiniest nail holes.
Alas . . . and you know what happened again.
Finally, the next time I heard scratching in that wall, I begged my husband to cut a piece out of the wallboard so we could rescue the critter before it died this time.
He agreed to do it, probably because he thought it would be easier than watching me cry, although he wasn't hopeful that the intruder would magically be in the precise spot he cut open.
And indeed, there was no body, dead or alive, in the space he excavated. He propped a panel of wood against the wall, held in place by a couple of pieces of heavy wood, and left the next step to me. I had no idea what the next step was, but it turned out none was needed.
That evening, after my husband was asleep in front of the TV, I was walking through the kitchen and a tiny movement caught my eye. I had been out for a walk in the rain earlier in the day, and I had hung my yellow raincoat on the doorknob of the door leading to the back deck. Sitting on top of the raincoat on the doorknob was a teeny mouse.
I grabbed the cat and put her in the closest bathroom, grabbed the garbage can at the same time, and tiptoed back into the kitchen.
The mouse was gone.
I did the only thing I could do at that point - took the raincoat and gently threw it out the door onto the deck. And shut the door, rather quickly I might add.
The next day, I checked the raincoat three times before I brought it back in.
There was no further sign of the mouse.
The wooden panel that my husband had propped tightly against the wall, held in place, you recall, by several heavy boards, was found to be slightly askew.
That wasn't just a mouse, it was a mighty mouse.
Anyway, I see this post is getting too long, so I'll be back tomorrow with ......... Part 2 .......
36 comments:
Mighty mouse indeed. I do hope that it WAS in the raincoat and had a fortunate escape from a dreadful death - though I wonder just why it couldn't have got out the same tiny hole it used to get in.
Looking forward to part two.
And would have been weeping with you (and possibly cutting holes in the walls myself).
In my childhood we had a mouse die in a benchtop electric stove. It took forever to track down the awful smell. There has been terrible mouse plagues here this year. Waiting for part II...
Mice have also been known to squeeze themselves under doors in that tiniest of gaps that usually only lets in a cold draught.
Oh my, I can't wait to hear the rest of the story! It is amazing what mice can do! Years ago every time I washed the dishes I smelled something awful but we could never find anything. Finally my husband was crawling around on the floor and looked up under the edge of the sink - there was a small, tight opening and a mouse had gotten stuck there and died. It totally freaked me out because I had been standing right there every time I washed the dishes!
Me: (showing Zsuzs the green plastic humane trap we got from Amazon) It worked really well on the last one, but so far no luck on the latest.
Zsuzs: But you have a cat.
Me: He's the one that keeps bringing them in.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
A cliff-hanger! Hope it has a happy ending for all concerned.
Expansion filler is a really good idea, and should keep mice out of walls. However, we've had raccoons twisting foundation vents away from the older (non-slab) part of our home. They got into the underpinnings and sounded like they had crowbars and hammers. They are powerful and have no interests other than shelter and fallen fruit, but they open egress to domestic rodents. Here in Vineyard, negotiation with raccoons usually involves firearms. However, I've found midnight (when they leave to forage) carpentry keeps them out. Reinforcing foundation vents keeps them out to find more rewarding lives on the prairie.
Mice are beautiful...but their toilet habits are unfortunate!
Mice are crafty critters!
Quite the rascal. I look forward to the continuing saga!
Mice ... they can get in whereever you can put a ballpoint pen through. We have them every year when the harvest is done; they get hungry, and come into our house. All our edibles are in tins for that reason, and we're not very humane, using a spring trap to catch them. Just recently I found a dead mouse in a basket. They can smell so much considering their small size.
I'm curious just how this ended ... and happy to hear from you again.
With all the cats in the house, we've never seen a mouse. Not that there hasn't been one, just that if they are wise they scoot before they are seen by us or the cats, i'm guessing.
I am so mouse phobic so you, my birthday mate, seem like mighty Jenny to me!
I think the mice or whatever else is getting in may be coming in at the ceiling level of that room, but crawling or falling down the space between walls to floor level, and are unable to get back up to their entry point. A couple of times I've heard the scratching first in the ceiling, then eventually in the wall near the floor.
I would have cut the hole myself but I was afraid I'd cut into some electrical wires or the plumbing! So I needed my husband's expertise to make the hole safely.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets wrought up over a mouse, EC. Many people don't understand.
I did read about the mouse plagues there; it must be horrible. Mice multiply so quickly. I know an infestation is not a time to be sentimental about little mouse lives, but I can't help but feel sorry for them at the same time. I can imagine the hunt for the mouse in the stove. They can fit in such small spaces.
Yes! They are SO tiny and can flatten themselves SO flat!
Oh no! That would freak me out too, no matter how badly I felt about the mouse's awful death!
Hah! That's funny! Well, it's funny from this far away, at least :)
Part 2 is live now and I won't spoil it for you :)
That sounds like a serious battle you have on your hands, Geo. And midnight carpentry sounds like an interesting solution. Raccoons really are strong. They used to be able to open our garbage cans at the cottage where they were stored outside, even with reinforcing bungee cords. Often we gathered the garbage numerous times between pickups - the same garbage, over and over, just shredded into smaller and smaller pieces.
Yes indeed - we had them in our cottage one winter and it was a mess that spring. I still felt sorry for them. There was nothing in the cupboards to eat but they ate some candles in lieu of food.
They sure are. I know you are speaking from close personal experience :D
One mouse is not that bad. But where there's one, there are usually more, and that can be a difficult problem.
A spring trap is more humane than a sticky trap. Those things are terrible. And yes, how can something so small smell so bad?!
Your cats must be good hunters, Mimi. Doug's comment today describes how their cat brings in mice and then lets them run around!
Only from a safe distance, 37p, believe me :)
I once had a highly curious kitten trapped between walls. By the time I'd convinced a friend's husband to come and make holes in the walls to get her our, one of our old cats squoze into the entrance and enticed her out. He used little mama cat noises to call the kitten. It was amazing.
Your story made me chuckle (ruefully). Our mouse invasion of a few years ago is still not far enough behind me to read your story without a small shudder. :-)
your story had lots of suspense and thrilling moves dear Jenny
it made me worry and smile as well at the end :)
yes since we moved here we use mouse trap so often which was really rare in previous house,we have little slight holes both sides of our main gate which makes fine way for such creatures ,it was mason's mistake .we get visits by mongoose ,big lizards and mouse.among all mouse are stubborn ,all others disappear after appearing instantly but mouse get in somehow and we have to use ways to make them out.
yes i have witnessed few times how huge mouse makes it's way through tiny holes striking indeed .
lots of love!
Well, this is a timely piece. Just about the time you were writing this, maybe, littleb and I were lounging on my bed, reading and chatting, and there was a scatching and clicking noise we couldn't quite place. We have a new puppy so our first assumption was that it was the puppy in her crate on the floor below. But it wasn't. We finally agreed the noise was coming from the wall. It continued through the night and into the next morning and then....nothing. I'm waiting for a peculiar odor but hoping it made it's way out. Hope your little friend did also, if that's where we are going here...
Mousehunt!!! This is way better than the movie...
Awww . . . what a good boy he was. That WAS amazing, you're right.
Oh! I remember that . . . no wonder you have that reaction :)
I would not like to see those creatures in my house - I'm glad they mostly leave on their own. It seems mice are a problem all over the world!
Oh dear . . . I hope your critter got out, too.
A new puppy??? *waits expectantly for a blog post from Chicken*
There was a movie? My education is sadly lacking!
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