Our Little Visitor

Wednesday night I came home from Martial Arts to find out that Andrea and Garrett had had a tiny visitor. While sitting on the couch, Andrea saw something come out of the kitchen and approach Katie's food. At first she thought she must be seeing things, but then realized that in fact there was a mouse eating Katie's oatmeal.

When I arrived, I started searching for our little visitor and found that our kitchen had a gap between the dishwasher and the cabinet. I tried to entice the critter out into the open, but twenty minutes of sitting quietly made no difference. So I began cleaning up to leave the issue for the morning, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a grey ball whizzing across the edge of the kitchen. It scampered from the corner near the dishwasher to the next corner, between the sink and cabinet. Then at the corner, it seemed to jump into the cabinet. After opening all of the cabinets, I grabbed a mirror and the mystery was solved. Apparently there is a small gap between the cabinet under the sink and the adjoining one. Unfortunately, the cabinet makers left a hole underneath, where our little friend found a nice hiding place.

So Thursday morning I made my way to Lowe's for a mouse-catching education. I selected a trap that allows catch-and-release, because it's not the mouse's fault that we don't want it in our kitchen. I set up the trap in the kitchen with a small piece of cheese (I know that's a cartoonish choice for bait).

It took until Saturday morning, but Audrey (we selected a name for her that suggests small and cute) finally made her appearance. One mile north of our house is a big open field where I released her. I hope she's made friends with some other mice and is happier than she was in our cabinet hole!