Mouse Hunt

One day a few weeks ago, Denver and I watched the mice at Petco running relentlessly in the exercise wheels.
I wanted one.
Denver would never have it.
(My stubborn boyfriend of 2+ years would never admit to anyone his fear of rodents, but we all know it’s there.)
Like a disappointed child, I moped through the rest of the store, wishing I could take one of the mice home with me.

Another day when I returned to get Rosco some much needed dog food, I stopped again to watch the mice.

Can you guess what happened next?

I chose the cutest, most unique female mouse available. She was black with a big, white spot on her back. She was kind of lazy, but that was alright. I hoped that would lessen Denver’s anger when he saw her…

It definitely did not. When he saw the cardboard Petco box that contained the mouse he flipped… He was not happy with me in the least, but I was having a grand ol time with the mouse I dubbed Bella so he would have to put up with her for a few days. (I had no clue what I was going to do with her at the end of those few days… I knew I could not keep her, but I also didn’t want to send her to an early death…)

I played with her constantly. I converted a shoe box to house her. It had a treat bar in it, apple slices to munch on, and paper towel tubes for her to play in (and she did). I’d hold her and let her walk around on the floor, careful to keep her in reaching distance.

Rosco was scared to death of Bella. When he first saw her, he literally went out of his way to walk the perimeter of the room to stay as far away as possible from her. After a while he would try to muster up the courage to sniff and investigate the foreign creature, but he was still extremely jumpy and distrusting.

As it turned out, Justin-the-roommate was also very not okay with me bringing a mouse into our home. I did my best to keep her out of his sight afraid he would step on her if he had the chance…

One day when Denver and I returned home and I went to check on her, she was gone. She was not in her cardboard playhouse. I instantly accused Justin out loud assuming he assassinated my new pet. Immediately following my indictment I noticed a hole in the box that had not been there before… The little bugger chewed her way out. (I thought she was happy… sniffle sniffle)

At this point Denver had reached a whole new level of anger… Not only had I brought a mouse into his home, but now it was on the loose… We had no idea how long she had been free or any clue as to where she could be. All we could do was wait for a hint.

We decided to not tell the roommate. Denver loves me so he couldn’t harm me, despite his antagonizing desire to at that moment. Justin owes me no such kindness and he tends to be over dramatic in certain situations… We just hoped we would find her first.

Well. A solid week went by and we had seen no sign of Bella. My family told us she must have escaped the apartment and was now running free or being eaten by a house cat.

We relieved ourselves the worry of her running amuck in our apartment and agreed with their assumptions.

A few days later while Justin was digging around in the pantry looking for something to eat, he noticed a mess on the floor. I had a bag of potting soil- the expensive Miracle Grow type- on the floor and there was a massive hole near the bottom of it. There were inches of Miracle Grow covering the floor of the pantry… He soon noticed the same with a bag of flour and the pancake mix… He immediately knew a mouse must have wrought the damage and yelled for Denver to come take a peak.

Denver came back to me just glaring while he explained the situation. I was a little scared of him at that moment. I was also afraid Justin was going to be fuming, now aware that my mouse was free.

I started cleaning the pantry floor immediately when he said, “This is all Carrie’s fault,” I interrupted him apologizing profusely but he continued, “her mouse must have invited all of her little mouse friends to come here too!” He said all of this in a rather lighthearted, chipper attitude. I realized at this point that he had no clue that it was in fact my mouse that did this. He had yet to ask us even where Bella was or what we’d done with her- and he hadn’t seen her in over a week….

I allowed this to proceed. I never confirmed nor denied it was my mouse because he was not asking or assuming and I saw no point in spoiling his unusually good attitude. (This increased my fear of him finding her first...)

We continued to clean the entire living room and kitchen, confirming she was nowhere in sight. We would have to continue the mouse hunt later.

Later that evening while Denver and I were sitting in the darkened living room watching a movie I saw her little shadow dart across the floor from the coat closet to behind the TV.

“THERE SHE IS! I SAW BELLA! SHE’S BEHIND THE TV!”

And so the hunt began.

Denver and I equipped ourselves with flashlights and bowls to trap the mouse. We discovered she’d slipped under a door into the water heater closet. We then spent the next two hours trying to trap Bella, but she chose the best place to hide considering neither of us could reach her, though we could easily see her.

Justin came home to the living room being torn apart again and realized we’d cornered Bella. He jumped in, trying to scare the mouse out of the closet towards one of the two doors where Denver and I were stationed, waiting to catch her.

She was a patient one, that Bella. She waited and waited until she could dart my way, escaping my fumbling, unexpecting hands and slipped right under the door into my bedroom.

This was a dreaded move considering all of the nooks and crannies she could hide within my bedroom… Thankfully she relocated under the dresser where we could still see her and where we could more easily reach her.

Denver and Justin did their best to scare her out my way, and sure enough, she panicked and came running straight towards me.

(At this point Justin was putting two and two together having seen her familiar coloring... Of course I had to get the most unique looking mouse available...)

Screaming from the intensity of it all, I caught her in my hands and went running for the front door.

Denver and Justin both wanted to stomp the innocent creature to death, so I ran outside barefoot, down the stairs and headed towards the pond holding Bella by her tail.

Both Justin and Denver were right on my heels, gaining speed faster than I was. Just as Justin was about to catch up to me I threw Bella at the last moment onto the lawn.

It was dark at this time so there was no chance of either of them tracking her down.

They were disappointed she got to continure to live, but they were more than relieved that she was no longer in our home, so we all walked back together, laughing the fiasco off.

She’ll probably serve as a meal for one of the wandering house cats in the complex, but at least this way I can hope she is ok and at least not smooshed into the ground.

I'd say the investment was worth the excitement; (though the two fradey-cats I live with would strongly disagree :D)