All Write, Already!

Edgar the mouse and Dani my fiance are engaged in battle, and I have been brought in as the secret weapon.

Edgar, as Dani calls him, took up residence somewhere in our kitchen last week. We think the bitter cold that we've had the last 10 days drove him in, and since there was a broken window in the basement that my landlord was slow to fix, we think he got in through there.

So Dani asked me to get traps, to try to get rid of Edgar.

I bought these vicious classic spring-loaded mouse traps, which I liberally baited with peanut butter and placed in the two places we had seen him.

The next morning, the peanut butter was completely gone, the traps licked clean, yet still unsprung.

So we put some drops of honey on the traps, and even under the trap mechanism, and even on the cross-bar. We basically gave the entire trap a honey-coating better than any Beer Nut.

This morning, the traps were nice and dry, no honey, traps even moved significantly from the spot they were in the night before, but still unsprung.

There were also mouse droppiings found under the sink next to our cleaning supplies.

I pulled out the big guns today.

I bought four glue traps. Ever seen these things? They are ultra sticky goopy pads that you leave in the mouse's usual pathways. I nearly had to throw one out because I came this --- >.< --- close to getting stuck to it myself.

They are now under the sink, in the potato drawer, and at the location of the last two traps. I have even dropped a small dollop of peanut butter into the center of each glue trap as an added incentive for Edgar to investigate.

Edgar will die tonight. If by some miracle he survives, we plan to escalate even further tomorrow: My friend has two big, six-year-old cats named Hermione and Loki. They are experienced and very effective Mousers, and while I am badly allergic to all things furry, I'll hop myself up on extra doses of my allergy meds for a few days while we invite the cats into our humble home for the weekend.

* Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Dream Park

** Or, in the case of the guy on the train tracks, "Evolution Inaction."