Catch and Release

"Jerry Mouse and Tom Cat (not my pic)"

Every other winter, I get the occasional house mouse moving in. Believe me it isn't Jerry or Mickey Mouse (were they cousins?). My excellent mousers, Max and his twin sister Moxie, usually take care of the problem. I STILL haven't located where the mice get in. Usually it's a brown small field mouse with big brown eyes. Cute, if it weren't a mouse. Nah, still cute. But still a mouse! LOL

I'm not as tough as some of you guys though. I catch and release. I think I remember my dear ole' Philly friend KitKat electrocuted at 43 of them since January 2015. That's Philly apartment living for ya!  And then she so eloquently posted pics of various Mouse Memes of mice stuffed and dressed in various poses. (Other people stuffed them.)  LOL It was actually quite cute if not a bit morbid. Man, she's a tough gal though folks!

I had heard my current house mouse making his way through the walls end of February. The cats would follow him as he made his way across the family room ceiling. OK, more like just stare at the ceiling and let Marc and John freak out about the mouse.

I set the 'catch and release' mouse trap a month ago in the laundry room with a dollop of peanut butter as bait. The mouse goes in for the peanut butter, can't get out. The thing is, I forgot about the trap because we didn't hear the mouse for several weeks. I figured he'd moved out.

Little did I know that the mouse was happily gorging himself on the peanut butter. I was doing some spring cleaning in the laundry room when I remembered the trap. I checked it and found the "roof" of the mouse trap had been ripped off. There was a pile of plastic shreddings all about the trap. The mouse got trapped and LITERALLY clawed his way out of the trap. AND he ate all of the peanut butter!

OMG! What a little fucker!

Luckily the trap was still usable. He just clawed and pried the top off. Well that was not gonna stop me! I got the trap, put in a fresh dollop of peanut butter at about 3PM and put the trap back in it's place. I went about my business doing my Sunday-Funday chores.

About 10PM in the evening I went into the laundry room and there was Mouser 1 and Mouser 2 (Max and Moxie respectively) sitting in the dark watching the mouse trap. I exclaimed to myself NO WAY! That mouse had must be a peanut butter lover because I caught him within 7 hours!

I got my cell phone on flash light and shone it through the plastic mouse trap and sure enough, there was a very fat peanut butter laden mouse chillin' like a villain in the trap, drunk on peanut butter! I usually release my mice in the yard of the neighbor I dislike the most. Just kidding! But I remembered someone telling me I had to release them at least a mile from my home or else they'd be like Jerry Mouse and take a hike back home.

So I drove up to the Lake Wynonah Lodge where I bartend, about a mile away, and decided to release him in the surrounding woods. I passed one of our security guys in the LW security SUV and I thought to myself, Just great, I'm gonna have to explain why I'm releasing a mouse up here at 10:30PM!

I tried to get a pic of my mouse but was unable to. As soon as I opened the trap, he sprung like a Jack-In-The-Box! He shot like a dart off into the woods just 6 feet away. Well I hope he lives a ful-filled mouse's life! He was pretty fat on peanut butter too. After that, I looked back and saw that the LW security SUV had moved up wondering what the hell I was doing.

UGH. I figure I had better drive by and talk to them. I pulled up next to security and found my buddy Thaddeus, in the driver's seat. Thank God! This twenty year old kiddo knows I'm a little crazy but knows I'm not up there for any problems. LOL. After explaining, Thad thought it was pretty funny and I was soon off on my way. Knowing I had saved a mouse *** YES a mouse, but still one of God's creatures in my opinion *** it was worth it. Worth the 3 minute drive to release him into the woods. Is that so much? I think not.

BUT ... I'm in trouble if he saunters up to the Lake Wynonah Lodge Bar while I'm on duty asking for a double Jameson's Irish Whiskey on the rocks. I may give him a free one, but with a straw and a dollop of peanut butter.