Round 4: We were licked clean! The four spring traps set up with peanut butter have been cleaned out. They’re sparkling even. He’s a little bugger. He might be too light to trigger the trap. Or too clever.
Seb hasn’t eaten the peanut butter in the catch-’em-alive trap. Maybe he doesn’t like the look of it. Or was full from all the peanut butter from the other traps.
For round 5 I’ve got ham rind stuck to the trap as well as this device.
It is a cold winter’s day. The clouds gather forebodingly as I trudge home. My arrival is greeted with relief by M. There is a mouse in the pantry.
Round 1: He has formed a barricade at the pantry door and attempts to catch our prey in an ice cream tub. The mouse is too quick; slipping through a gap in the cereal boxes; he hides behind the tv cabinet.
Ha! M can not catch a little mouse. I will help him.
Round 2: We form a temporary obstruction across the living room floor. I’m standing on the left, ready to herd the mouse out the back door. He goes right slipping through next to the wall and under J’s door. Into J’s room.
J’s room, for the uninitiated, is a room only a mother would clean. I see the mouse is wily one. I go get mouse traps. M proceeds into the depths of J’s room.
Home again, and J has turned up. Our enemy has a name … Sebastian. United at last, we set out to best our opponent. I set the traps. Going to use peanut butter for bait. Soo tasty. Think I might have some. Some from this trap. If I’m quick I could get a lick … snap and a scream a manly scream a shout from the other room. False alarm; the trap went off in J’s hand, startling him. Traps set, we venture in.
Round 3: Standing by J’s door, I guard the gap under the door. M, armed with a vacuum cleaner, and J, with the ice cream tub, seal off J’s walk-in wardrobe. Both of them enter — prodding J’s shoes to flush out Sebastian — but it’s crowded, too crowded — there’s men and mice everywhere. J leaves to get more space — the barricade is knocked and Sebastian is away. Under J’s bed he’s on my shoe: the very same shoe which is blocking Sebastian’s access to the rest of the house. I admit; there was a moment of panic I’m ashamed to say. I moved my foot to dislodge our visitor and he’s through the crack and out into parts of the house unknown.
We could admit defeat and call T. He’d deal with Sebastian. But we’re too proud. The traps are set. I can wait.