Eek! Mice!

Well, the Rowe household has some very unwanted visitors staying with us: mice.  Over the past few days we have come to the unhappy conclusion that there have been mice camping out in a hole in our garage wall, and today one of our rodent guests made his or her way into the house.

Madeleine was the one to spot the mouse, alerting us that she had seen it scurry under the basement door.  Ethan inspected the basement, to no avail.  Several minutes later, Madeleine announced that the mouse had left the basement and squeezed itself under the downstairs bathroom door.  Ethan was then able to locate the mouse, but before he could do anything beyond whack it with a plunger, it snuck behind the washing machine.  We have now barricaded the bathroom door so that it can't squeeze its way out, to bide us some time before we can get to the store and buy mouse traps.

The kids are totally freaked out.  Julia is terrified that she's going to get rabies if she so much as steps on the ground upon which a mouse has trod.  (Regardless of the fact that mice are not common carriers of rabies.)  Madeleine needs an adult with her to go downstairs after her traumatic ordeal of seeing the mouse twice.  Julia is afraid that the mouse will come into her bed while she's sleeping and cuddle up on her pillow next to her.  I have to admit, I'm acting like a a bit of a freak myself.  I feel something tickling my skin under my shirt.  OH MY GOD IT'S A MOUSE!!!!  Oh.  Nope.  Just a piece of hair that got tucked into the neck hole.

So now Ethan and I are preparing to try and rid our house of these mice.  The kids, who are apparently experts in mouse extermination, have boisterously offered all sorts of great strategies.  Julia suggested making a house out of our recycled cardboard boxes to offer an alternative home for the mice.  Madeleine plans to barricade her bedroom door to keep the mouse out, but is fretting over the possibility that she may not be able to get out of her room in the mornings.  Both girls have offered up the animal traps used on the tv show Wild Kratts, despite the fact that the Kratt brothers never caught mice. 

However, I think Madeleine has nailed it with this solution to our mouse problem.  Behold the sign hanging on the downstairs bathroom door:

I'm sure the mice will obediently heed this instruction.