I is for...patter of ITTY bITTY feet

It's not what you think...



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             Do you have a phobia?
  
                       Afraid of something?


                                                  
In 1995 my Hubby and I got married. We rented the 2nd floor of a little cape house. My 82 year-old land lady lived downstairs on the first floor. Our little apartment was a shoebox of a place but we fixed it up and it was home. At the time I had gone back to school to finish my degree and was working as well. I was studying for  the big certification  exam.  It was a Saturday and my Husband had just left for work. I sat in the living room listening to music with huge headphones that were attached to a Boom box (remember those?)

OK set up done

    some more info now..

                  I am deathly afraid of MICE.

Hubby and I had lived in the apartment about six months and had never seen anything to suggest that there might be mice. Being from the city I naturally sealed all foods in glass containers. Fast forward to when my land lady told us that she was going to have some work done downstairs. She told us that if we heard some banging; it would be the workman working on the walls downstairs.

OK then....back to me on the couch listening to music. Through the corner of my eye I saw something.

I turn...nothing there. But you ever get that feeling that someone is staring at you? I turned back to my books.

The corner of my eye saw something again.

I turned...

            I screamed.

It wasn't some mamby pamby scream. I screamed like the house was on fire. The scream seemed to echoed in the air for a long time afterwards.

Before me sat a little field mouse who when I screamed simply sat there as if to say...


          "It's too noisy downstairs; got any food up here?"


My knees instinctively went to my chest. I was frozen. It seemed that with all the work my land lady was having done downstairs it kind of pushed the mice up into our apartment.

There was a knock at my door. My landlady heard my scream and when I told her that I saw a mouse she simply said "oh yes they come in around this time of year. Don't worry they are more afraid of you than you are of them." Now let me tell you I loved my land lady. She was the sweetest woman ever, but she couldn't be more wrong.  She handed me a little mouse trap. She offered to help set it up for me. I felt foolish  "No I can handle it" I told her.

I told myself...it's a little mouse and I just need to get a grip and .........





                      AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                   THERE IS WAS AGAIN!!!!!!!


I ran into the tiny living room and again told myself....This is ridiculous...I'm a grown woman, I have survived living in the city in not such a great neighborhood and I'm going to let this little mouse scare me? NO freakin' way!!!!!!! I was going to set up the darn mouse tra....





                         AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                THERE IT WAS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




What to do; what to do?
                
I had to somehow set up the trap.....had get to the fridge for some cheese. but the mouse was in the kitchen somewhere!   So I did what any rational grown woman whose afraid of a mouse would do. I climbed on a chair and pulled another chair in front of it , then stepped on the other chair...I kept making the "chair train" until I got to the fridge and could take out some cheese. After I snapped my fingers twice I managed to figure out the trap.......I put it down and ran into the living room. I was confident I would hear a snap any minute.

Instead




                           AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                      THERE IT WAS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! 



and this time...now I won't swear to this but I think he might have flipped me the bird.  I gave up. I waved that white flag and ran into my bedroom. I called my Mom and she told me "Just pray to God and he will give you strength to go out there and handle it." my response

"Mom, I think God wants me to stay right here."  I had no where to go. We had only one car and my husband was driving it. My land lady had her hands full with the work being done downstairs and I had no friends nearby. I was stuck.

Eight hours later.......... I read every thing available to me in our bedroom. I had called every friend I knew, and had written nearly a book's worth in my journal. My Hubby came home and I was feeling like the princess in the tower. I was so happy my prince was home.  He took care of the mouse......I'm not going to say what he did

you can choose

He trapped it

         or

He sent it to live on a farm with a nice family. 


Just a few months later we had to move because our landlady was going to sell the house.  The first question I asked the second landlord?

"Have You EVER had a problem with MICE?"  Thankfully he said no.