Mouse House

When this glorious weekend started, with its extra day off work (I actually get Easter Monday off but am being forced to work.. ugh!  still.. Friday off.. glorious) and sunny warm forecast, I didn't think the word I would utter the most as these three days went on would be "mouse".

Spring rocks!

It started with my attempt to fill the bird feeders.  We put the seed in an allegedly rodent-proof container in the shed for the winter.  That was our first mistake - storing birdseed essentially outdoors.  There was a funky stink to the shed when I went to fetch the birdseed at some point last winter, and I noticed the bag had been ripped into, so I quickly moved it all indoors, deciding to defer the obvious rodent issue to spring (and, really, to Jeff).  Well, spring is here!  Time to move things from inside the shed outdoors, including my resin box for birdseed - I will just simply toss the used sunflower seed/mouse poop into a yard waste bag and start fresh - AUGGGGGHHHH!!!!  There was a dishcloth in the bottom of the box that had been chewed through by a mouse obviously looking to make a cozy nest with its fibres and when I picked it up it was distinctly heavy.. because a mouse was LODGED in one of these chewed holes!  He'd somehow gotten himself stuck wriggling around in the dishcloth and that was where his life had tragically ended.  I snapped the lid shut, declared, to no one, "I'm OUT!" and backed out of the shed, locking it tightly.  Attempt #2 to rescue the box had brave Jeff discovering my strangulated mouse and also his fat friend, passed away in the bottom of the box, well fed but passed on.  We were surprised at their stupidity for how smart they clearly were to have been able to get into a mouseproof box in the first place - they had forgotten how they'd gotten in (tiniest hole for lid hinge at the back), and tried to chew their way out through the bottom of the box - which has double layers of resin for that reason.. until their sad, deyhydrated end.  And into the yard waste bag with two dead mice.

My glam weekend continued with the picking up of a winter's worth of dog poop.  Usually there's a rainy stretch of Jan or Feb where you lose the snow and can access your backyard to tackle at least half of this disgusting job - this year.. nope!  A whole winter of poop in one afternoon! (are you still reading this disgusting blog entry?  ... may I ask why?!?!)  I actually did pretty well with this nasty job (things were fairly well desiccated!) until the point where I leant down to pick up one last pile of poop only to discover it was a dead mouse.  Again... I'M OUT!  I have handled a dead mouse once in my life (http://www.sincerelygoofy.blogspot.ca/2012/01/my-week-with-ziggy.html) and would prefer to pass on that again if I don't have to (poor Jeff).

Jeff and I were walking Bailey the other morning and found him acting super strangely during his usual prance around Morning Crest park at the end of our street - he was distinctly rolling his neck in something, which he has NEVER done before but I remember all too well from Rusty's antics on the shores of Lake Ontario when I was a teenager (ewww dead fish)!  I wondered what Bailey might have gotten his nose on.  Suddenly he leaped up, ripped a huge chunk of dead grass up from the ground and starting dashing through the park with it, footloose, fancy free.  He dropped it, rolled in it some more and looked at us in delight.  Jeff and I were confused until the lady we had met in the park explained "oh, he's got a mouse house" - a mouse house.. ew.. - so I told Jeff to get the clump of grass some mouse had previously been using as a home away from Bailey so he'd go back to fetching sticks like a less gross dog.. and when (poor) Jeff picked up the grass to chuck it away he found a dead mouse inside of it.  COME ON!!!!

The last in my tale of woe is that our shed was actually being used as a mouse mansion this winter.  I can just imagine the mice bragging to their friends about it - "you should check out this place, it's huge!"  "there's unlimited amounts of seed, man!!!"  "I have the BIGGEST, COZIEST BED!".  Because some mouse or mice had decided to nest inside our lovely new patio furniture cushions, tearing out all the stuffing and cuddling themselves into a nice snuggly bed for the winter.  We just bought our patio set last spring and are so in love with it - we were so bummed to find the amount of destruction a few tiny teeth could cause.  As he pulled the last pillow down Jeff shouted "there he is!" and whipped a pillow at the shed wall, startling out a very fat, well-rested, happy looking mouse who disappeared into the depths of his mansion.  Jeff duct taped up the two pillows that had fallen victim to the mouse sleepover but the funky stink of something that had been used as a mouse home, coupled with the white trash vibe of a duct taped patio furniture pillow wasn't jiving.  Guests to our deck and firepit this summer - we are on the hunt for new cushions, I swear!!!

It's quite lovely living country-adjacent.. but your belongings becoming belongings of sneaky little furry critters is simply uncool.  The mouse squatting party ends here.  I've decided to let them vacate on their own accord (i.e. remove all food and fluffy things and hope for the best) rather than forcing them out - I am after all an animal liker at the end of the day (I was going to say "lover" but I don't LOVE mice, or stinging insects, or birdseed stealing squirrels and raccoons.. so let's go with liker).

The Mouse House is officially closed!!!!

Closed for business