This is another of my 1up blogs, I was planning on doing an original for my first Ranger Stuff entry on PixlBit, but things come up. Ser, I'm posting this in Normandy's honor.
EDIT: Sorry about the trap confusion, I forget not everyone lives in the boondocks and deals with nuisance animals. This is a Hav-A-Hart trap:
Originally posted 5/25/06
And I don't mean Mickey, either! We've got a bit of a rodent problem at our HQ in the park at the moment. It all started last Saturday, when I went to grab my leftover half of a cream cheese brownie for my coffee break. There were little holes chewed all through the plastic and large mousie nibbles taken out of the brownie under the holes in the plastic. Not to mention the tell-tale little brown mousie droppings on the counter next to the brownie. Grr! Ranger Tami now very angry! So I went looking for our mouse-sized Hav-a-Hart trap. Hmm... no trap in any of the usual places. What to do? Well, I felt it constituted an emergency, so I called the boss at home and asked where the trap was. Bad Andy! He took it home to catch little mousies at his house! Leaving my brownie undefended.
We set the trap on Sunday, caught and released one on Monday. Then a second one yesterday. Cute little brown mousies with big eyes, big ears and long fuzzy tails. I took the one yesterday for a lovely long drive in the country and released it near a farm, but in the field, where it belonged. I didn't re-set the trap, though. At lunch time, I told our new crew member that I was going in to town to get a sandwich, did she want to come with? She said yes, as she finds the cabin to be quite creepy when she's by herself and the little critters scurry around like they own the place. No sooner did she say that, when a mouse ran under my descending foot and over the top of my other foot and behind the stove. "Eek!" we both shrieked and jumped at the same time. Now, mice don't usually bother me, but I just wasn't expecting one to leap out under my feet on cue like that! After the adreneline rush subsided, we both left for town, giggling like crazy. We got back with our sandwiches, and I went in, yelling: "ok, mouse, here I come!" And had another one (or maybe the same one, who can tell?) zoom past in the same spot as the first one. New person #1 heard me yell "you little bastard!" at it and dissolved into hysterical giggles out in her car. At that point, I made a little "mouse crossing" sign, stuck it in the middle of the kitchen floor and went to get the trap. Coming back into the office/living room, yet another mouse (or the same mouse a third time) made an appearance, racing into a dark corner and trying to hide. It disappeared into a small hole under the heater that some wires go into and I said: "AHA! Gotcha now!" and set the trap. New person said: "I bet we catch one before the end of the day," just as the trap shut. And lo! We had ourselves a little baby mousie in the trap. I drove this one down to the same spot as the one I had released earlier and let him go, too.
We left and went into the park to do rangerish sorts of things and left the sign in the middle of the floor for Andy to find when he got back from picking up our new computer. He opened the door, saw the sign, and right next to the sign, saw mouse #4 (or was it really only #2?) and burst into laughter, scaring little baby mousie #2 into the trap. I dumped that one off in the same spot as the previous two.
Now, today, Andy and I were in the office talking about the weekend's schedule and what he wants accomplished prior to the weekend. I look over and see yet another mouse sitting between Andy's feet! Mousie realizes he has been noticed and escapes behind the file cabinet. Andy goes and gets the trap out of the bathroom closet and puts it back on the Ho Chi Mouse Trail. Another mouse makes an appearance from under the heater, and pauses to have some breakfast, sitting in front of the trap. File Cabinet Mouse get curious about what Heater Mouse is eating, so he shows up again. He discovers that there is peanut butter in the trap and enters, but doesn't sit on the trigger. I grab two sheets of paper and sneak over, blocking one side of the trap with one sheet and scooting Heater Mouse into the trap with the other. One of them runs over the trigger and the doors close. Two mice for the price of one! New person #2 gets to take these little guys on their drive in the country and drops them off with what we assume is the rest of the extended mousie family.
So, four days and five mice later, I'm curious to see what I find in the trap tomorrow. Maybe I should start banding them or something. How about a mousie-cam? A "guess the number of mice in the cabin" game? The possibilities are many, probably as many as the mice!
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