Jesse just admonished everyone for talking so loudy; little mousy is sleeping. The kids are all whispering. I don’t suppose it would be possible to show humans the same respect?
These kids, as I suspected, have fallen in love with mousy. They were squealing with delight, just like Christmas morning, upon discovering the creature this morning. “He’s so cuuuuute!” “He’s so tiiiiiiiny!” “Look! He’s doing tricks for us!”
After all the children were asleep and I had placed the (if I do say so myself, ingenious) humane mouse trap in place, properly balanced (as that is the hardest part; balancing the top pan on the bent bamboo skewer), Jamie and I observed a moment of silence. Perfect silence. Within moments we both tuned into the noise of a scurrying animal ON THE ROOF. Jesse woke and came out; he was 
either too hepped up in the anticipation of a Maus Hunt to sleep or the mousy woke him with his roof antics. I was certain it was a cat on the roof – how could the maus get UP there? Jamie headed outside to watch the roof while Jesse and I listened. Sure enough, there was something up there. Eventually we heard him head to the wall with many electrical wires, the fuse box, the TV; all the wire stuff. I was SURE our electrical systems were toast, but apparently he found a way down and appeared soon after in the bathroom. Jamie surprised him and he bolted to the bunkbed room. In a stroke of incredible luck, he popped down into the heating vents. Jamie immediately covered the one in the bunk room, ran to the middle of the trailer and covered those, watching mousy scampering along the duct and yelled at me to cover the one in my room WITH MY FOOT! Um, what? I yelled back that I would NOT be covering the vent with MY FOOT and kept an eagle eye on the vent while I dragged the shoe box over it.
I was sure he had escaped somewhere, but Jamie was sure he was in the duct. We taped up 3 of the 4 vents with clear tape, covered the 4th with a clear plastic box, put a wedge of cheese outside the vent and waited. I was amazed to see him pop up and we quickly moved the box away from the vent and crowned it with a pan. He tried really hard to get out, but it wasn’t happening.
Today we get to figure out how to get something under the box so we can put a lid on it and transport him to the wonderful Baja desert. The kids think they have a pet. We’re now talking about The Plague. I SO hope I don’t need to create a “Maus” category for my posts…
The picture of Jamie curled up staring at the mouse is priceless!
Loved your last 2 posts, as did Bill!
aaw he’s so cute!
Okay…… How did you get the mouse out of the trap? I loved the trap and will build one like it if we ever have another mouse. I used a broom to sweep the last rodent we had right out the back door!
I must say, I didn’t really laugh at the last posting, but this one did crack me up. (” WITH MY FOOT! Um, what? I yelled back that I would NOT be covering the vent with MY FOOT”). What do you think they’ll name Mousy? Har. Love, C
Kitty, Been trying to email you, but it won’t go thru. I’m at Campo San Felipe; bring the kids and come visit. I have sudoku and new pencils for them.
Janet – Well, he was supposed to use MY trap, but Jamie trapped him coming out the the vent. In the am, I slipped a piece of paper under the plastic box, taped it to the sides and flipped the box over, quickly replacing the lid. Maus was then portable. In my ingenous trap
, he would have been trapped under the bread pan and under the bread pan was another pan to make the trap portable. Clear as mud?
Jeanne – thanks! When I can drag them out I’ll bring them down!