Sunday, July 5, 2015

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.

7 comments:

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

A fat mouse ate all those cookies????? Something seems amiss here - or did you mean a GIANT mouse??? BOL Hope you can evict the whole family quickly!!!

It was a rough night here too. Ciara was a total wreck. She would not go outside even on a leash. Mom gave up rather than stress her even more. Tonight she will start bedtime potty time earlier with lots of rewarding treats and see if we can slowly get her back to a better bedtime ritural. No accidents either. Just one very upset little girl.

Woos - Ciara and Lightning

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

A mutant mouse??!! We can't believe it's just a mouse. Perhaps, the mouse was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

My Dog Sam - Ruptured Disk said...

I hope everybody is okay. I hate loud sounds too. I get all panty and want to hide downstairs. But Happy 4th of July to our American friends just the same. Did you get ice cream? :) I love ice cream!

That sounds like one clever and athletic mouse. If my brother Owen saw it, he would have chased it up a tree. He saw one walking on top of the fence one time and when he tried to get at it, it went right up the tree! Hee Hee. Must have scared that mouse!

It's so hot here, I'm not getting my regular walks :( I can't go until later in the day and only for shorter walks. Dad and I can't wait for it to cool down a bit.

Happy tails!
Sam

Molly the Airedale said...

We hope the boomer lovers have had their fill of stooped fireworks for another year and it's peaceful and quiet for you guys and for us tonight and every night for a long time to come!
We can't believe it's a fat mouse! We were so expecting larger!

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

They always, always have friends!! --Glad you caught at least an accomplice!

Lapdog Creations said...

Just a heads up on humanely trapping mice... which we've done a LOT here... you need to put that trap in the car and drive it as far away as possible. I think they say at least 5 miles, but preferably even more... and release the mouse somewhere. Otherwise, they'll just find their way back into your house.
They can be very pesky critters and while I prefer not to kill them, we have resorted to using the snap traps when needed.

The Daily Pip said...

Oh my gosh, I was sure it was a possum!