Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Eviction




A nice day was met with an enjoyable evening last night. I was preparing for bed and Carolee was bringing some things into the kitchen and then off to bed we thought we'd be. It was 10:30 and we were both tired. As I got ready for bed I heard Carolee yell from the kitchen "Oh My Gosh!! Oh No!!" I knew at that moment that I would not be going to bed. There was a problem and now I had to fix it. But whatever the problem was... I had no idea.

I ran into the kitchen and Carolee explained that we had a rat in our kitchen. It all made sense. A week before I found a pile of rat/mouse droppings in the bottom drawer in our oven.

I knew I couldn’t go to bed knowing with an animal in our kitchen. I think the idea that I had a live animal in my kitchen didn’t exactly help me fall asleep. 

I got dressed and went downstairs to the small pharmacy right next to the entrance of our apartment. I was impressed that they actually sold rat glue. I bought their biggest bottle, walked upstairs, and set the trap.  

With the trap set in the card board box I grabbed a flash light and sat just outside the kitchen with the lights off. I could hear the mouse inside the oven chewing on something. It sounded like he was gnawing on something metal. All I could think of was: What if he chewed on something that caused a gas leak in the oven. How horrible that would be. I think the mouse got brave because he ran out from behind the stove and up the pipes. I think it wanted to get up onto the counter and find a snack.

But every time it got near the counter it stopped, waited, then turned around and went back up near the pipes.

As the night dragged on so did my eyes slowly drag shut. I was finding it hard to stay awake and wait for the mouse to do something. I was hoping that the mouse would be tempted by the piece of cheese and get stuck in the glue. He never actually went near the box with the cheese. 

At around 1:30 he climbed up into the wall fan that was turned off. As soon as he went through I realized that that was exactly how he had gotten in our apartment. When you have the fan off it can slip between the fan blades. So when I realizing this I turned the fan on. Now if he tries to come back into our apartment he will get shredded. Good luck Mr. Mouse. Maybe he can try moving in with Templeton the Rat above the Heiss’. 

3 comments:

Nancy said...

Ummm...I don't think Templeton would like that. He's a loner (we hope, we hope, we hope!)

Lydia said...

The worst "apartment mate" we've had was a bat that lived on our balcony. Left droppings everywhere. The only invasive little suckers we've had is the occasional gecko!

Lis said...

Hey cutie! This is your cousin Lisa! What a cute little blog. Hope you and your cute hubby are doing well in Egypt. We have a blog too, www.lisakeith.blogspot.com.