Last fall we had a mouse in our kitchen, who seemingly happily and quietly existed along with our cat and Rosie. He lived mostly in a cereal cupboard, and cooperatively ate the packets of plain oatmeal that the 3 children who live here never bothered with. When we finally noticed the holes in non-exciting oatmeal and the too-good-for-you-to-actually-eat cereal, Jay got a have a heart trap and caught him.
We all felt terrible. He was fluffy and fat and kind of cherubic-like after his warm autumn of oats and hot chocolate and granola and a night time woodstove, and somehow befriending our cat, who, at 13, had apparently decided she was no longer interested in that aspect of feline'ism'. We let him go at Mt. Apatite. I was hopeful, but not confident, he would be able to reacclimate to nondomesticism. 12 months later ............ Three days ago, Jay discovered evidence that a probable mouse now lives in our dishcloth/potholder drawer. And last night, a probable mouse chewed a tiny circle through the saran wrap over the brownies Leah made and ate just an inch by an inch top layer section, along with that saran wrap section. He didn't disturb anything else. We have a cat, a puppy, and a very old dog who all have regular access to the kitchen where this probable mouse is apparently partially residing in a drawer full of dish towels, and occasionally eating dessert off of our counter tops. None of our intentional animals seem to be helpful in convincing him to go back into the suburban wilderness around us. And he hasn't yet fallen for the new have a heart trap. I kind of wonder if our original mouse has returned, with more awareness around the purpose of that small green trapdoor, for round 2 of autumn woodstove time, granola, and oatmeal. ;)
Update: I'm feeling super bad about this, but I need to tell you all ..... the hidden peanut butter crackers behind Jay's green trap door were too much to resist, and so Gus took a ride out toward Bader P.T. today in a Chevy Silverado and got dropped off in the woods in Hebron ...... and because he didn't want the yogurt raisin that Jay tried to give him for a snack on their car trip out, when he trotted off into the woods, Jay threw all the rest of the yogurt raisins at him and all of his new Hebron friends. 😂🤣
