Oh, Rats!

Actually, they're just mice. And they're in our garage. Have been since around the beginning of the year. Our garage is currently storage for a whole lotta' junk. That's pretty much what most of it is, too.

So we bought a no kill trap. See, these mice have been displaced as a result of the land developers clearing out their homes across the street. They just needed a place to live. And being the bleeding heart, tree-hugger that I tend to be at times, I couldn't kill them. For those of you out there smugly thinking the trap will never work, we've actually caught two already. And there's at least one other left. Yes, at least. Apparently they can bread after only being about 5 to 6 weeks old. And one female will have up to 8 litters per year. Egad!

Lemme tell ya, them mices leave a lot of stuff behind. For a while, I could walk into the garage and it just smelled of mice. I know the smell because one of my college roommates used to have a mouse or two occasionally that she had swiped from the small animal labs where she worked. They can get pretty stinky. Anyone who's had a hampster probably knows the smell, too.

As we try to get the house in order before Baby Girl gets here, we are cleaning the garage.... albeit slowly. There are a few things that we've had to throw away because the mice have torn them up (sleeping bag and small rugs), but they were in the garage and clearly not being used. They've taken up residence in a tent bag. The tent is a humongous, antiquated tent that my uncle gave me two years ago (presumably to get it out of his garage) and we have yet to use it. So it's getting kicked to the curb this evening and Husband is going to attempt to plug up access holes with steel wool and plaster/cement.