An explanation will be needed methinks before I begin...
We live in a small stone cottage in the middle of nowhere in particular...it isn't a quaint cottage with little quirky rooms and interesting corners...it's three rooms in a row with a small kitchen built on the back and the back lobby which was tacked on by somebody with more enthusiasm than skill.
If you are really brave and clamber up into the roof space, you can see bits of thatch left over from when the whole roof was thatched...it's slate tiles now, with lumps of moss growing on them.
But it is the old stone walls which cause our wildlife population to expand in the winter...
You hear odd scuffling's and the occasional loud squeak...the dogs each open one eye and hastily close it again...the mouses are back.
They charge across the kitchen floor in the evenings and move their beds about in the roof and drag tired mouse children up and down the roof beams...they sharpen their teeth on the water pipes and fall headlong from roof to floor inside the walls...they make cosy nests of bits of my wool under the bed in cardboard boxes and stuff dozens of teeny pink babies inside.
Big, fat, important looking mice run up the sides of the bookshelves in broad daylight and I've seen them run straight across Bobby's paws...but Bobby hasn't the sense he was born with and I doubt he notices.
Trouble is, mice carry germs, however endearing they may be...so in the end Himself gets the traps out and baits them with peanut butter and leaves them in strategic places and they go Snap in the night and then he puts the sad little bodies on the range and I suppose they go to mouse heaven.
They come back of course...not the deaded ones...don't think anyone has ever seen mouse ghosts, not they've 'fessed up to anyway...phantom dogs and horses perhaps...but not mices.
We have rats sometimes...in the roof.
Now...I cannot be having rats...they have to go and I don't care that they have bright beady eyes and long whiskers and dear little paws...proper traps, that mean the business, go up there baited with lumps of cheese and Himself puts gloves on and wobbles about on the step ladder while I hang onto the bottom of the ladder for grim death and hope my oxygen tube doesn't go Ping and smack me in the face...
Summertime brings in bats and spiders...big furry moths and baby birds...
That'll be for another time.
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Reminds me of the cottage I was brought up in as a child. It was in the middle of some woods. I had a lovely childhood there mice included.
yes I lived in a house that backed out onto fields and as you know they come indoors this time of year but unlike your bobbie my chummy was a first class mouser he used to lay in front of mouse holes until the appeared snatch them up and drop them at my mothers feet she letting out a loud shriek at the time.
Ahh, the joys of the countryside Vashti! I have heard that rats and mice don't 'run' in the same place, it could be an old wives tale though..I confess to shooting rats from the bedroom window, I have a picture I took of one I shot once, but I don't think anyone would like to see it would they?!) it's that time of year, Once, we had a rat getting into the spare bedroom don't ask me how? we lay down a trap, it went off ( jaffacakes are the best bait I can recommend ) but it was HUGE!!! a great big, healthy , massive shiny, critter,eyes glowing and all!.. my good man happened to have armed himself with a shovel and pinned it down by it's tale! then he left me holding the shovel while he ran to get the gun! I could NOT breathe enough to yell,it was trying to get away and I was pressing the shovel so hard I thought its tail would break it was not nice! lol! sorry but I don't mind if they stay outside they just can't come in! now I have Rex he keeps them down and away from the house! Keep 'em out and maybe get a puddy huff xxx
Where I live my back garden backs onto wildlife paradise so my four cats love bouncing around in the long grass looking for mice, they do bring home prezzies but one night they bought a live mouse up to me in the bedroom as I went to grab the cat it let go of the mouse who then ran off, 3 hrs we spent trying to catch it to no avail lived with us for 2 weeks in my bedroom made a bed out of my carpet it had chewed up eat through a Pringles tub I had left on the floor and devoured cream cheese and chive Pringles enough to hoard for weeks, had to keep the cats out didn't want them to kill it in front of me, we did catch it eventually and put it back outside in the long grass, don't know if he survived, but hey he had an all inclusive two week break. X Sonia x
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Just one thing bothers me about this story...why were you eating cream cheese and chive Pringles in bed? lol
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Always eat goodies in bed, isn't that the meaning of comfort food lol x Sonia x
Do you not have a cat Vashti ? I'll send you my three. We used to have mice and one winter there was a family I got quite fond of as well. I was in the habit then of sitting up late after everyone else had gone to bed and as the fire turned to embers, out the mother mouse would pop from behind the bookcase. When she felt secure, one or two others would follow but at that stage, I'd freak out and fly upstairs to bed and safety. I don't recall trapping them but eventually they went away. Since we got the cats in 2001, we've never had another mouse. Love your story and descriptions !
Another good read Vashti.Yes I too had a community of mice residing with us,they too would scamper behind the walls and skirting boards.They sent my poor cat round the twist as he leaped from wall to skirting following the patter of their tiny feet.I never caught a glimpse and no pressies left by the cat which he would like to do for us with birds and field mice from outside? Well all changed when I renovated ,the house was gutted including the skirting boards as I sat having a cuppa I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye.I turned horrified and perched up on top of a pile of the new skirting boards waiting to be fitted stood Mr Mouse and there waiting below was the missus.I went to bed happy that my hunter cat would be having a fat supper that night.I lay in bed watching tv when I saw a mouse poke his little head up from the floor board that had been lifted.When morning arrived I hot footed down the shops to by traps,and instructed the builders to make sure every little nook and cranny was sealed up.Touch wood I happy to say we are mouse free I think and hope,they do have such lovely little faces bless them. Janexx
Vashti you should be writing childrens books! Thoroughly entertaining. Thank you! Suz xx
Aargh I can't abide mouses! Many years ago I walked quickly into my kitchen and walked on something soft. I look down and it was a mouse but it wasn't quite dead, so I put a tin on it with my iron on top. That worked.
A couple of days later a mouse crawled out from behind a stack of albums against the wall in my lounge. I leapt up and it ran back behind. I pushed them together then the mouse crawled out holding it's injured leg. I lost it and ran into my kitchen grabbing the first thing I could see. I then squeegy mopped it to death. I confess - I am a mouses killer. I still feel bad about it....
Lolololol! that was so funny Coughalot! my rexo is the mouse murderer in this house, one foolish mouse climbed into his dinner dish and he ran over to it and swallowed it whole! huff x
really enjoyed that. very well written, it was like reading a novel. looking forward to the next chapter.xx
You are a great writer,Vashti,enjoyed that! Will look forward to more.The only experience I had with a mouse in the house,was long ago.We moved into this house,& had our cat Tiger,whom was a great mouse catcher.Anyway,there was deffo a mouse in the kitchen.No worries I thought I'll shut the door & Tiger will fix him up!
To my amazement that did not work,so bought some ransack & put it down,leaving the box on the kitchen bench(everyone was out) came home in my lunch break,decided to put the box away,felt my arm was very warm,looked down& there's the mouse climbing up it,oh did I jump!!! Ratsack spilled out everywhere,he must have been in it,having a feed!!
Anyway,to cut a long story short,we were only renting the place whilst our house got built,when our Agent did his final inspection to get our bond back,I was telling him about the mouse,& he laughed & said they had been trying to trap it for ages,apparently he has been a fixture there,& no one has been able to catch him.
Mind you,he didn't tell us that before we moved in,I wonder why??lol xxx
I got a business we had infested with mice for some strange reason we had nothing to do with food. But one night on closing I baited my traps with a mars bar ( not a whole one ) and set the last one under my counter and snap! I thought dropped to to heavy again need to reset ? Only to have a mouse in it! must of been a Kamikaze mouse to save the others.
Oh Vashti - your post brings back bad bad memories! You are quite right the rats have to go! We too live in an old cottage but in the middle of town, some years ago an old mill or factory or similar was demolished and the head rats went out scouting for new homes and found our attic very homely! We were able to call out some council department (maybe the environment?) and they came out to clear them - my husband and I were not up to the job!!! The very best of luck TAD xxx
h Vashti, That's so funny. What you need are my 3 cats! They'd be in cat heaven having supper on tap. I too live in a small place in the country, so I get an endless array of both living and deadn's brought in - birds, frogs, mice, shrews and yes, even the odd rat! Trouble is with me, if they're alive I catch them and put them back outside - with dirty looks from their captors. Can't say I'd like the spiders though!? I get spider spray every year to keep them out - they don't like that! (the spiders I mean.) Happy hunting.
Oi Vashti! What's all this that I haven't the sense I was born with. Just wait till I get my paws on you. he he he. Absolutely loved your story. Thank you.
My daughter woke me one night to tell me there was a mouse in her bedroom I thought she was dreaming but I went in and shut the door, we moved the bed and there was the mouse I got a large plastic bowl and took the pillow case off, more by luck than judgement I managed to trap the mouse under the upturned bowl and slid it across into the pillow case. We wrapped it up and carried it downstairs and out of the front door, we both stood there in our pj's I let the mouse out of the bag and we dived back in the front door screaming because the mouse was following us. Hubby stayed asleep.
We also put a camera attached to the tv into the loft because we could hear noise and there we saw a little family of mice playing in the rafters hubby got some humane traps and when we had caught them he took them to the park and let them go. Now we have a small unit in the loft which sends out an inaudible noise which they don't like so they must all go next door now.
Sounds like a beautiful old place you have but that beautiful place sure needs a cat. Our home backs on to woods and our two cats go out hunting they come back with all sorts of presents the only thing we have in our garden is a family of squirrel's and the birds
Thanks Vashti, that was wonderful reading. I was back in my childhood days again there in reminiscence for a few nagic moments. Malk.
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Once, we had a rat getting into the spare bedroom don't ask me how? we lay down a trap, it went off ( jaffacakes are the best bait I can recommend ) but it was HUGE!!! a great big, healthy , massive shiny, critter,eyes glowing and all!.. my good man happened to have armed himself with a shovel and pinned it down by it's tale! then he left me holding the shovel while he ran to get the gun! I could NOT breathe enough to yell,it was trying to get away and I was pressing the shovel so hard I thought its tail would break it was not nice! lol! sorry but I don't mind if they stay outside they just can't come in! now I have Rex he keeps them down and away from the house! Keep 'em out and maybe get a puddy 
huff xxx
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