Tiny Invader

We have recently discovered a side effect of our successful gardening.  It is clear that God created delicious vegetables for many creatures to enjoy, not just humans.  Earlier this summer we noticed several holes inside the garden and thought we might have a mole.  We put Maggie on patrol for the culprit, only to see the tiny invader ourselves one day.

Emily observed a field mouse running along the outskirts of the garden one day.  After some research we were interested to discover that field mice do not climb things like other rodents.  It never said they wouldn't climb up a vine, but certainly not a wall or a tomato cage.  Regardless, we never noticed any damage to our vegetables, so we just kept an eye out for him.

Last Saturday, while Emily and I were watching Gameday, I noticed something scurry across the carpet from the laundry room to the entertainment center.  It looked too big for a roach, but surely we did not have a mouse inside the house in the middle of the day!  A quick glance behind the tv proved otherwise, and our attempts to corral him into some rubbermaid storage boxes proved comedic.  So it was off to Home Depot for some traps.  Our friend reared his twitchy nose later that night while we were getting ready for bed, but somehow managed to miss the traps we had set.  He managed to set one off, yet did not get caught!  We decided to put peanut butter on them the next morning to further entice his pallet and make him linger longer over the fame cheese pedal.  Apparently despite all this talk of the magic of evolution, mice have not learned what peanut butter is essentially a kiss of death, and find it irrestible.  Monday afternoon, we came home and found this:

We'd like to thank Victor mouse traps and Jiff peanut butter for their contributions to this successful operation.

Lessons learned:

1)  Take care of rodents the moment you discover them near the house...don't let them run low on food and decide to see what may be in the house for them to eat

2)  Do not follow the directions on mouse traps that say "No need to actually place bait on our fake cheese pedals"-- they should say "PUT PEANUT BUTTER HERE"- it works more effectively and quicker

3)  Mice may be agile, but they can't outrun a Victor spring loaded death bar