Mouse in the House

It appears that we are hosting a little mouse in our house. We discovered him this weekend. Late Sunday night I was sitting at the bottom of the staircase typing an e-mail on my blackberry and he came out of the living room to take a look at me. I now have a feeling he was trying to get up the stairs.

Richard and I spent a good 45 minutes trying to shoo the little fellow out of the back door. We were sure we failed, but we could at least no longer find the creature. I ordered a two in one rodent repellent for next day delivery that night before I went to bed.

Well, the ordered device has still not arrived and the mouse is becoming bolder. This morning I woke up to a Alexa screaming, "Mommy!" (side note: I feel bad because I thought it was some kid outside screaming. When I finally got up to look out the window, I realized it was the child in the bedroom across the hall.) Anyway, I went into Alexa's room and she was sure there were mice all over her room. So we sat and listened and sure enough, something was in there making scratching noises.

We finally pinpointed the noise to her pile of stuffed animals. Alexa pointed out a bag and told me she thought there were chips in the bag. While on top of her bed, I threw a few additional stuffed animals at the bag and nothing happened. I had already turned on the lights and the sun was creeping through the windows by now. finally I braved it and look in the bag - there were chips there - but no mouse. Then I began moving the stuffed animals one by one. I felt that the mouse had surely moved on my now and there was no real danger. I found another bag with the wonderful meal the mouse had been eating - a granola bar. (No - food is not allowed in the bedrooms - but yet there it was.) Then as I moved the next stuffed animal, I discovered the little brown mouse staring up at me.

Now what? He is so cute, but so creepy. It's weird! Anyway, I could not find anything to catch him in and he is way too fast anyway, so I settled for getting him around the room and down the stairs. Bad news is then he ran into Amber's room and we started the whole thing over again. In the meantime, the girls have named him Despereaux. They beleive he is adorable - but got dressed on top of their beds all morning.

Finally, he made it all the way downstairs and into his usual hiding place (no idea where that is by the way.)

So we are still waiting on my next day rodent repellent device that is 3 days late so far and living with the mouse. I just saw him sneak out of the living room - I decided to follow only so far as to ensure he did not climb the stairs. Although I am creeped out - I am just trying to not think about it too much until the repellent device arrives. Please be tomorrow!