Eeeeekkkkkkk!

Things were a little amiss at this household today. I had shoveling in mind when I got home and found that we must have ticked off a snowplow driver enough that he would direct the entire blocks worth of snow into our driveway approach. I'm not kidding when I say it was up to my knees. I parked on the street and made my way up the driveway and into the house. Did the usual, checked the mail, checked my email, let the dog out and then ventured downstairs to retrieve the polish sausage from the fridge. As I rounded the bar I saw something out of the corner of my eye. At first glance I wondered why my husband would play such a cruel joke on me. I got the polish and turned when I realized that what I saw moved. This was no fake mouse! The little creature jumped off the bar onto the floor. I heard the little plop and then it started running in circles. My natural instinct was to scream and try to get away from it. I had no weapon except the box of polish sausage which I was not about to try to explain to my family tomorrow. It took off under the fridge. I took off up the stairs and slammed the basement door. WTF! How did we get a mouse in the house.

I made a quick phone call to my husband at work to pick up some traps. He seemed a little irritated when I said it was on the bar. "You know, the same place you were eating crackers and herring last night" was my explanation. I then made a hasty retreat outside to tackle the snow. I kept telling myself I was being silly, the stupid thing is only about 4 inches big. I kept shoveling until he got home an hour later. Like a scared ding bat I followed him into the house. He had brought home sticky paper instead of a trap. He neatly laid them down in a few places in the basement and then with broom in hand I got the rest of the things I needed. I kept looking at the laundry basket under the magic chute wondering in the little bastard crawled in there. I whacked the basket a few times and then moved it to the top of the washer. I looked for droppings in the area and found none. Hopefully this thing just got in.

My husbands feelings were not the same. He thinks they came in when we brought in some boxes from the garage. If this is true it's been shacking up down there for a month. Hopefully not in the motherly way at the time. He checked a few more areas and then went off to work.
I stayed clear of the basement. There was no way I was going down to "check the paper".
Also had to keep the dog upstairs lest she come up with sticky paper stuck to her nose.

He got home around 11 and we went down to investigate. The look on his face when he rounded the bar was priceless. He just let out this strained "Ohhhhh" and almost looked sad. "Did you get it I asked". "Got them" him...."Them"..me "Ahh, there's three". Then he was kind enough to tell me that I don't want to see the mess. He took off into the workshop and returned with a pliers and bucket. I figured he was just going to pick up the whole pad and toss it in the bucket. I asked if they were still alive and got a nod of the head. "Got to put them out of their misery" is what got me to fly back up the stairs.

As the count goes now....3. More paper is down and unless he checks it in the morning I'll be staying upstairs with a towel jambed under the door.