Mice

We are intimately acquainted with mice. On the one hand this has made for a fascinating nature study. We’ve had plentiful opportunities to hold and observe their habits and homes. One mother made her nest under a sheet of plywood on our gravel pad. The boys and I would check on them daily to see how they changed. They were beautiful pink jellybeans, hearts beating through translucent skin who began to clutch our fingers, crawl, squeak and grow luminous whiskers. When baby mice grow fur, they are the most adorable creatures in creation. It’s impossible to hold an exquisite, sleeping baby mouse and not feel awe. And likewise impossible not to feel guilt about setting traps when you see orphans, blind and hungry, feebly stumbling along and crying piteously for their mother who have not returned to feed them.  

I felt so conflicted the first night Matt set up drowning traps outside the trailer that I couldn’t sleep- it felt unethical. And after all, the mice are just looking for a warm, safe place to live. On the other hand, since July they have infiltrated our trailer and both vehicles. Twice we’ve had to replace chewed wires- once for the brakes! We put blocks of 2x6 over the vents because we can’t figure out how they are getting into our HVAC system from the outside. Many nights I would wake to the sound of little claws scratching on metal and the snap of traps, then sometimes if it wasn’t a clean kill, the mouse thumping along, still attached to the trap. Matt just wore earplugs. We tried stuffing crevices with steel wool. We set up a wildlife camera, hoping it would reveal their entrances. Sometimes we would have a stretch of two days without any mice but usually there is a persistent trickle of them. All this has meant we have no heat because we can’t turn on the forced air while mice are running through the system. Then a mouse died, and we can’t find it (this has already happened in both of our vehicles). So now we have a cold, stinking trailer. 

Here lies Winston.

Here lies Beautiful.

 Just a few days ago the boys had a breakthrough and discovered three places the mice were entering through the underbelly of the trailer which I spray foamed. In fact, a dead mouse was hanging upside down from one of them- probably his foot was stuck in a trap. The past three cold and rainy nights we’ve retreated to a hotel with a waterpark. Today is the first sunny day in the forecast so we’re going back, armed with Matt’s invention for sweeping the ducts, a breathing mask, gloves, and a bottle of bleach. We can’t wait until we’re settled enough to have barn cats.