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I went out last night after dark to drop the kitchen compost in the earth-machine. I must have left the back-door open a crack, as a tiny field mouse ended up inside. It wasn't until shortly after I came in that I startled it from where it was perched up on the curtain rod. It came spiraling down the curtains, and disappeared somewhere into the corner. It was already almost midnight, and I thought I was heading to bed.

The mouse ended up booting in under the kickboard below the cupboards next to the dishwasher. Me and Lance poked around down in there, but to no avail. He must have creeped fully out of sight behind the dishwasher or the range. *sigh*

By the time I crawled back into bed, Charlotte was up, and heard me and Justine talking about this midnight mouse caper. Charlotte rather liked the idea of a little mouse living in our kitchen, and perhaps we should just let it be. Well, we advised her that little mousey probably had a family out in the yard somewhere, and would it not be a good idea to re-unite them ?

While I was thinking of a standard mouse-trap setup (SNAP!), we'd set the stage for a much more civilized opportunity to trap the critter alive, so as to ensure a rodent-family reunion.

Luckily, Mommy did the research today, and found this non-lethal mouse trap setup, and she set it up in the middle of the kitchen floor. While we were watching SYTYCD on the PVR this evening, mousey managed to wiggle into the tube, SCAM the bait and disappear back into his kitchen hide-out! Bummer - he didn't tip over into the bin! So, we re-baited the tube, and balanced it a little more precariously over the edge of the chair. While I was sitting here contemplating this blog, I heard the unfamiliar sound of a mouse-loaded cardboard tube landing in a pile of shredded newspaper, coming from the kitchen. I decided to go check it out at once!

I peeked into the bin, and there I saw the mouse, with just his face peeking out of the edge of the tube, wondering no doubt what was going to happen next. I opened the front door to hasten my exit with the loaded trap, and went to pick up the bin. The mouse jumped out of the tube and started to dance around in the newspaper a bit - certainly a frisky one. I put the bin down for a second to let him mellow out, and re-convince myself that there was NO WAY he was going to skitter up the side of the bin and escape.

I took the bin out onto the gravel in the side yard and tipped it over. Out darted the mouse, quickly running along the fence line. Luckily, I can tell Charlotte that our mouse has gone back to find his family in the backyard....