I Hate Mice | Occupational Hazards of Homeownership

Sometimes we have experiences we just have to share with others... even if the only reason is to make sure we are not alone!

I hope I am not alone when I say that mice are one of the nastiest creatures and that they have no place in the house! Right?

At least that is how I feel...

I can handle a lot of things and take care of most things on my own, but when I opened the door under my sink this am to reach for the trash, a nasty mouse scurried across the top of it and into the back of the cupboard. I closed that door so fast and then just stood there staring at it. Not long after my moment of shock and horror, I placed a heavy stool in front of the cupboard door so that the unwelcome visitor could not enter my kitchen. Then, I proceeded to wake up my husband so he could deal with the matter, aka the nasty rodent.

You see, everyone has to deal with mice at some point in their lives. And with home ownership, it is your responsibility to deal with issues like this on your own (or hire someone I guess). No one likes to do it, but think of it as an occupational hazard. And honestly, things could be a lot worse. But for the sake of my story, hear me out...

Mice are the occupational hazards of my homeownership!

My experiences with mice have never been pleasant. My brother used to have a pet mouse that would constantly escape his cage and chew through cardboard. I remember finding finding a whole slew of mice babies in the Art room in 9th grade. And in our last house, although they never made it inside, we had a nest under the hood of our van... they chewed up a car seat and I found a dead one at the bottom of a bag of dog food. Gross.

I wish all my experiences with mice looked like this one!

Unfortunately, that isn't the case. My worst experience took place in 2008 when we were building our cabin. I was helping my husband move sheets of plywood that had been stacked on the ground and covered with a tarp. While walking over the wood we heard a few squeaks and knew there must have been mice living under the pile, so we lifted the rest carefully.

Have you ever been attacked by the mafia boss of a mouse crime syndicate... I have!

As we moved the last sheet, a pile of mice took off into the trees, but as I walked back to clean up the remains the “head mafia boss” mouse must have decided to give me a piece of his mind. I stomped at it to shoo it away and it jumped at me like it wanted to attack! It did this a few times until I got freaked out and actually ran away from a mouse... yes, true story.

Hence, now that we have a mouse somewhere in our house (and maybe more than one), I don't know how to react! I bought the house, but was not banking on mice penetrating the perimeter. Time to batten down the hatches and head for higher ground, I think!

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

Enjoy your mouse free day everyone, and please share your #kitchennightmares with me, you can tweet me @heatherramage or leave a comment below! We are in this together!