The Standoff

First of all, Dad, it is NOT a rat. It's a mouse. I've stared it down.

Day Four
A quiet evening at home turned into a thirty minute standoff with my mouse. While the 3rd and 4th acts of Otello played in the background, I stood on my chair in the corner of my room, broom in hand, waiting for the mouse to show itself. As it scurried from behind my bookcase to the dresser and under my bed several times, I was never able to get a good shot at it to whack it with the broom. When Laura got home, we set the traps and I slept in Mel's bed again (she was still in Italy).

Day Five
The mouse ate the peanut butter off the mouse trap we placed behind the couch, but there was no mouse. I left for the weekend so I put any thoughts of the mouse out of my head.

Day Seven
While staring out the window talking to my mom, I watched our landlord take the trash out. As soon as she came back inside, I saw a little mouse run from the same direction. "Sweet!" I thought, "It's out of my house." As it ran across the street, I secretly hoped that it would get ran over by a car so I would no longer have this rodent plaguing me. I didn't see the mouse when I came home from Macbeth, so I put my headphones on and went to bed, hoping I wouldn't be visited during the night.

Day Eight
Mel and I got back from the grocery store, and as she put away her wares I was getting her caught up on my mouse issue. While telling my adventure, I point to underneath my bed, and in the shadows we both spot the mouse. Figuring the mouse would stay in my room, we continued to put away groceries. The mouse comes running past my feet. We both scream and I run into the living room. I just stand there. Mel’s talking to her mom and starts pointing at my feet. I freak out and jump on the couch because the mouse has run past my feet again! I swear this mouse has something against me, which I don’t know why because I keep feeding it peanut butter. The landlord comes up because she’s heard our screams and hands us some rat poison. She also said that mice don’t like the smell of dryer sheets. I reloaded the mouse traps with peanut butter and placed one in the kitchen and one behind the couch. I placed several dryer sheets along the threshold of my room and one at each of my bed posts. I put my headphones on again and reluctantly climbed into bed.

Day Nine
The peanut butter was gone from both traps. We are dealing with a genius here that is bound and determined to taunt me. Before going to bed super late, I spotted the mouse. It ran from behind the couch and as soon as it saw me, ran right back. So now this is war! I grabbed the rat poison, covered it in peanut butter and placed it on the mouse trap.

Day Ten
The peanut butter was licked clean off the rat poison. I had a dream that the mouse came into my room. I was wielding a broom, so I started hitting it. I swept it down the stairs and it hit several on the way down. Then I smacked it until it was dead. As gross as the mouse is, there is still a cute quality to it that I don’t think I could do that. But rat poison? No problem!

Day Twelve
Haven’t seen the mouse since Tuesday night. Maybe the rat poison took care of business. However, there are weird noises throughout the house that I swear is my mouse walking behind the walls. If I start smelling something weird, I’ll know something worked. But if nothing works and my mouse is still alive, I might just have to name it and continue feeding it peanut butter. Maybe I’ll name it PB&J.