# Of mice and men **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 17, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-mice-and-men/819813 "2018-08-17T22:10:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-mice-and-men/819813/1 "2018-08-17T22:10:18Z")
Warning: a little bit of gruesomeness, and a long MPSIMS ramble. A while back I [posted](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=712106&highlight=mice) about our cat’s propensity for depositing live mice in our bed. The good news lately is that there’s been less of that; the bad news is that it’s because about two years ago the cat adopted son #2 as her pet, and now she sleeps in his bed, and also bring HIM the late-night presents. The other good news is that it’s been a rarer event, and we’ve been mostly mouse-free, at least until recently. To describe what’s changed, you have to understand the layout of our house, which was built in the 1700s - picture a VERY tall capital U, and then tip that U over onto its side. The very top end of the U is son #2’s room; the very bottom tip of the U is our bedroom, and then a long storage room, say 16’ x 10’. That storage room is actually washer/dryer, pantry, extra shelving, and then a lot of boxes/cases of stuff since we buy in bulk. And in addition to all that, the cat’s food and litterbox. About a month ago, I became aware that the mice had noticed the cat’s night-time absences, and were starting to take her food. The clues weren’t too obvious, no little poops, but just occasionally when I got up for my inevitable 3AM bathroom trip, I’d hear the “ping!” of a mouse fleeing the ceramic bowl. It happened often enough that I went and bought a mouse trap, organized the cases in the storage room into little pathways to the food, and put a trap in each pathway. And sure enough, a few days later, 2AM or so, one got nabbed, except it went horribly awry - because I was putting traps where the cat might go, I’d bought these little enclosed plastic types, rather than the lethal and cheap wooden type. As a result, the incredibly fucking fat mouse (I have seen many mice, but none like this - and no, it wasn’t a rat) had its head caught in the trap, but wasn’t dead, and had flipped around on the floor until it landed in the food bowl. Ugh. I took it out and deposited it in the woods, where it staggered off. I then put the trap back, thinking it had failed because the mouse was so big. And last night the same thing happened - snapping sound woke me up at 2AM, flopping sounds for a while, and then silence. I lay in bed feeling horribly guilty for not finding a different kind of trap, and then finally got up, turned on the light, went into the back room, and…no mouse. No trap. What the hell. For the next half hour I stacked and restacked boxes, looking for that goddamn thing, knowing it was in agony somewhere, but finally went back to bed. At 6:30 I got up, decided to work from home, and searched again for a while. Bear in mind - big room, lots of shelves and hidden areas, lots of cases. No luck. Finally, about 9AM, son #2 comes down to where I’m working. Me: “Did you hear about the mouse?” Son: “You mean the one in the garbage?” Me: “What? No. The one in the back room. What one in the garbage?” Son: “You will not believe this, but around 3 this morning the cat jumps into the bed, and guess what - not only does she have a dead mouse, the damn mouse is still in the trap.” So there you have it: presumably the cat found the mouse in the trap, and made the long journey all the way up to son #2s room to deposit it. God I hate mice. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-mice-and-men/819813/2 "2018-08-17T22:21:59Z")
We have lost mouse traps to mice, or rather Rats. Mr.Wrekker sets the big, mean old wooden rat/bear traps in his barn. He has to tie them to a stake or the half-dead Rat will walk off with them attached to a body part. I have a fear of a large rodent with rat/bear traps on it’s paws chasing me through bucolic hills of home, yelling “who’s trapped now?” ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2018, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-mice-and-men/819813/3 "2018-08-18T01:35:03Z")
Thankfully this summer weather has kept the critters at bay outside, but if this winter was like the last or before, I can expect glowing eyes during the night. This house was built in 1905 and I am sure there are plenty of entrances where meeses (sp?) can come in that I missed. Thankfully my friend/landlord adopted an angora cat who seems to be on look-out for such things. I will pay an extra $5/month not to have a dedicated mouse upon my bed. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-mice-and-men/819813/4 "2018-08-18T02:38:27Z")
The Siamese would never lower themselves to catch a mouse. But cat pee will discourage meeces, I hear. Old Granny used to take her cats sandbox(her term) and scatter it around her old garden shed to keep mice out. She claimed it worked, YMMV.