Birthday Visitor

My friend, Colette just sent me a birthday card. I had to laugh when I saw the postage stamp (the chef holding the little mouse) on the front of the card. The night before my birthday we were preparing dinner when all of a sudden we saw a mouse under the heater in the kitchen. The mouse was still and we thought it was dead, but...it's eyes were open. I watched it for a long time, then got the binoculars. Then I saw it move! We discussed our plan for how to catch the mouse. We had bought a birthday cake at the store and ended up taking the cover and placing it over the mouse. We tapped on the plastic cover and the mouse jumped and squealed. He was cute. But after finding evidence of where he had been exploring (high up in the cupboards), it was unnerving. So Brent "relocated" the mouse to the dumpster. We then went through the cupboards and threw "shared" food away. We discovered that this mouse had a real sweet tooth as was evidenced by nibbles taken out of chocolate chips, Andes chocolate mints and even a spicy chocolate bar. Over the years we have been given chocolate bars and candy. Because we don't eat large quantities of chocolate, we had a wide assortment remaining in the cupboard.

I really like animals (and even had pet mice, hamsters, a rabbit, dogs, etc. growing up), but a visit from a mouse (that isn't a pet) feels like an intrusion. It is unsettling, though we shouldn't be too surprised, given that we live in the woods! Initially, I was not too happy about the timing of this visit (just days before we leave). But now I am trying to view it as an opportunity to do some spring cleaning before we leave for Czech Republic.  We're hoping that there was only one mouse. But just in case we have strategically placed D-con and glue traps out.