The Great Cookie War

"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one hundred percent!"
                   From Horton Hatches The Egg by Dr Seuss

I can say the very same about someone else, Amazon.com. They said the critter trap would be here on July 4th, and it was delivered on July 4th. Fortunately I wasn't outside to greet the poor delivery person who had to work the holiday, but I was very glad to get the trap and try to win the Cookie War.

The boomers started yesterday in the early afternoon, so we had our hands full. I gave Sebastian some Valium and kept him close to me. Tess, who is terrified of boomers, either manmade or natural, refused to go outside so I had to leash her to get her out. Even then she pulled to go back inside and didn't take time for anything else. At 10 I gave them their yogurt and offered to let them out but no one wanted to set foot in the scary outdoors. Instead I put everyone in their crates and decided to try and wait out the noise.

Rob set the trap in the garage and used a few biscuits as bait. At 11 I went to the garage to see if any of the dogs were ready to go outside, but none would even go into the garage. I glanced at the trap and it was sprung and the cookies were gone but it was empty. WHAT???

I reported back to Rob and he had to go see for himself. What is this creature? We thought about the possibilities. Maybe it was a mouse that could squeeze thru the wire because I bought the possum sized trap. Maybe it was something strong enough to force the door open. That was a scary thought. Maybe it was reaching thru the wire to pull the cookies out without entering the trap. Whatever it was, I wasn't happy thinking that this creature might be smarter than we are.

He pushed the trap back into the box it came in and left the door exposed. He baited it with more biscuits and set it again. Maybe if it was small enough to get through the wire, it wouldn't squeeze out of the box, maybe...

We went to bed at midnight and the boomers were still loud and frequent. I heard the last ones around 2AM. Very considerate, you morons!

We were up at six with dogs that desperately needed to get outside fast. There had been no accidents overnight which was remarkable. Good dogs! When we came back in Rob went to check the trap. It had been sprung, so we opened the garage door and carefully carried the box outside and away from the house. When we pulled the box off, there he was..................


............a very, very fat mouse.

Rob set the trap on the ground and Mr Fatso Mouse squeezed his fuzzy bulk thru the wire and raced across the yard and up a tree. I've never seen a mouse climb a tree before but this guy did it in record time. Of course he carried ten pounds of dog biscuits across the garage in just five hours, so the guy can move.

We came in, reset the trap in case he has family living in the garage and we'll see what happens tonight. We won the battle but the war may not be over yet.