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So, I have a pet.
Dec. 5th, 2007 02:02 pmThough, it's not exactly a pet. More like an uninvited guest. It's a mouse.
I just saw it twice in the last about 5 minutes. It came out from under the door to the water heater closet. It came out, slowly scampered behind the dehumidifier (about a foot away from where I was), then went back into the closet. It came out again but only a little bit, and went back.
I noticed it for the first time a couple days ago.
Now, I'm not sure what do do with this little guy. I'm not a fan of traps that would kill it, I like mice. I've had plenty of pet mice in the past. But they weren't wild mice running around my apt potentially chewing holes in my furniture, getting into our food, using our clothes as nesting material, etc. So as much as I might like mice, wild mice do not belong in my house.
I would get a live trap, but then what would I do with the mouse? I could put it outside, but 1) if I put it too close to where we live, it'll just come back and 2) if I put it too far away from here it's probably going to die anyway. At least in theory a trap to kill it should be quick. While I would like to think that it would be ok, really if it was going to survive the winter it should have been making itself somewhere to live outside before it was covered in snow and below freezing. Instead it's been hanging out in the dorms.
Now, we're not really supposed to have pets on property (wild mice don't count), but there is a cat on property. His name is Wizard and he's owned by the housekeeping manager and his son. We're not sure where Wizard came from, the story is that he was a stray that he started feeding so he stuck around. It could just be though that he got a cat, hid it during the summer, and in the winter let wander. Gets around the no pet rule in a weird way if you say it's not REALLY your cat. Apparently during the off-season (late fall, winter, early spring) Wizard becomes the community cat. If he scratches at your door, you can let him in.
Now, I wish that we had known that earlier. Our place is probably one of the only places that doesn't smell like cat to mice. Otherwise he had tried to come in before, but we didn't let him in because we didn't know the whole story. If we let in Wizard, he might even catch the mouse.
I realize it isn't really any better than setting a mousetrap because the end result would be the same if Wizard was successful, but perhaps it would scare the mouse into a different area. Perhaps next door where nobody is living. Or Wizard could catch the mouse. I don't want to kill it, but I feel less bad about letting a cat do what it does than setting a trap to tempt a mouse with food but only break it's neck instead.
I just saw it twice in the last about 5 minutes. It came out from under the door to the water heater closet. It came out, slowly scampered behind the dehumidifier (about a foot away from where I was), then went back into the closet. It came out again but only a little bit, and went back.
I noticed it for the first time a couple days ago.
Now, I'm not sure what do do with this little guy. I'm not a fan of traps that would kill it, I like mice. I've had plenty of pet mice in the past. But they weren't wild mice running around my apt potentially chewing holes in my furniture, getting into our food, using our clothes as nesting material, etc. So as much as I might like mice, wild mice do not belong in my house.
I would get a live trap, but then what would I do with the mouse? I could put it outside, but 1) if I put it too close to where we live, it'll just come back and 2) if I put it too far away from here it's probably going to die anyway. At least in theory a trap to kill it should be quick. While I would like to think that it would be ok, really if it was going to survive the winter it should have been making itself somewhere to live outside before it was covered in snow and below freezing. Instead it's been hanging out in the dorms.
Now, we're not really supposed to have pets on property (wild mice don't count), but there is a cat on property. His name is Wizard and he's owned by the housekeeping manager and his son. We're not sure where Wizard came from, the story is that he was a stray that he started feeding so he stuck around. It could just be though that he got a cat, hid it during the summer, and in the winter let wander. Gets around the no pet rule in a weird way if you say it's not REALLY your cat. Apparently during the off-season (late fall, winter, early spring) Wizard becomes the community cat. If he scratches at your door, you can let him in.
Now, I wish that we had known that earlier. Our place is probably one of the only places that doesn't smell like cat to mice. Otherwise he had tried to come in before, but we didn't let him in because we didn't know the whole story. If we let in Wizard, he might even catch the mouse.
I realize it isn't really any better than setting a mousetrap because the end result would be the same if Wizard was successful, but perhaps it would scare the mouse into a different area. Perhaps next door where nobody is living. Or Wizard could catch the mouse. I don't want to kill it, but I feel less bad about letting a cat do what it does than setting a trap to tempt a mouse with food but only break it's neck instead.
