Mice Problems

I noticed about 2 months ago that there was a mouse in my house... I was lounging around because I'd taken a sick day at work and I kept hearing his little squeeking in the kitchen. I didn't really think I was going to catch him, but I got up anyway and searched the room for him. No sign... I went back to lounging. I heard him again, and this time I knew he was behind the refrigerator. I pulled out the fridge only to find a little hole he probably used as an escape route. I was a little pissed that this little guy was bugging me on a day off, but I decided to let it be and pushed the fridge back in place. Turns out that was a mistake because I crimped the copper pipe that fed the water into the ice machine and cracked the pipe, sending water spraying all over the back of the fridge and the floor.

Anyway, the pipe is fixed now. The mouse however, is not. He managed to make his way into an open toilet and committed suicide. I'm sure it was the overwhelming guilt he felt for helping me break the ice maker...

I came home on a Sunday a few weeks ago and found mouse "presents" all over the counter tops. I will admit, the squeeking is fine, running around the kitchen is cool with me, but leaving shit all over the counters is pretty much unacceptable. Target had a variety of traps to offer: D-Con sticky traps, poison traps, little snap-traps that close down on the mouse so you can't see it once it's dead, and the good old-fashioned snap-traps. I went with the cheap and messy variety and went about setting them across the kitchen. There was an old one under the sink already, so I had set that one with a raisin and the others were set with peanut butter.

The first night I surprised my first mouse. The raisin served as good enough bait and I began my mousing tally. 2 down. A week or so had gone by with no noise and then I began seeing the "presents" again... I rounded up all the traps to see how the peanut butter was faring. Most of it was half eaten, but there was one that just sticks out in my head. One of the traps had a glob of peanut butter topped with a little piece of mouse shit delicately spread on top. Like a damn cherry. I have visions of a Tom and Jerry-esque mouse just playing tricks on me now... just eating most of the food and crapping on the rest to let me know he's not afraid. I need myself a very capable Tom, I think... How bout it, anyone have a cat I can borrow?!?