Monday, April 11, 2011

I is for...patter of ITTY bITTY feet


It's not what you think...


source
             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. 

        

11 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh!!! When we were first married, we rented the second floor of a little Cape Cod, our landlady lived under us, and she was about the same age!!!!!! We lived there for about a year, then moved because we needed a second bedroom for our expected baby. I can relate, with me it's spiders, I have done a zillion posts on them. I have dumped over food, been trapped in a room, forced to call people to drive over and kill, etc.. by the way, I have heard that cheese is a cliche, what they really like is peanut butter. A charming and nerve wracking post!!! I could almost hear the music from Jaws as I read it! Hope you don't dream of mice tonight!!

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  2. funny post guest i shouldn't ask you to babysit baby hamster

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  3. I am so afraid of mice too! My husband thinks it's funny.

    We live right next door to a field and when the field gets cut down every year...well.

    Thank God for men and mousetraps!

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  4. If there is anything worse than a mouse it has to be a cockroach. LOL

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  5. That's funny! I can relate. I've had a lot of critter excitement throughout the years. I don't mind domestic rodents at all. We've owned several pet rats and they don't bother me at all, but I don't like wild rodents. Did you know field mice can jump pretty high? We had one in our garage once. We were trying to coax our cat to catch it(some cats aren't natural mousers). The mouse was freaking out and jumped about two feet into the air and clung to the side of the garage wall trying to find an escape.

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  6. I have a cat who loves hunting down mice and bringing them indoors only to lose them. We once had a mouse trapped in a speaker. Sigh.

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  7. This reminds me of the first couple of places we lived in after my first husband and I were married. Funny how you forget these things.

    I hate mice too!

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  8. @ Ginny~ We have so much in common!!!! No wonder the cheese didn't work! I am so glad we moved...I was a nervous wreck!

    @ Cindy Caudle~ I never thought I would react that way, but it was insane how afraid I was!

    @ Becca~LOL whats funny my kids did have a dwarf hamster before we got the dog and as much as I liked her..I could never hold her...iisshhh!

    @ Ma~ Akkk! I bet around that time of year you are on pins and needles! I know I would be!

    @ Beth~ I agree! those things are YUCKY!

    @ Sherri~ Oh my Gosh I didn't know that they could jump that high! That means the mouse could have easily jumped as high as I was standing on the chair! ugh..the thought!

    @ Lynda R Young~ I had a friend who's cat did that. the mouse buried itself in the couch!

    @ Retired English Teacher~ I know I had forgotten about it until I heard someone talking about their experience with one recently.

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  9. HaHaHa! You write very well. I don't usually read longer posts but you pulled me right in with that one. :)

    PS I think mice are cute, but they startle me sometimes!

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  10. Great story~!! You presented it so well, had me on the edge of my chair...Yep, really NOT afraid of the mouse, (she says quietly) but don't wanna' deal with it making a path through the house, either~!! And, I CANNOT, repeat CANNOT take one outta' the trap..I am a wimp!
    Good post for "I"...Fun blog!

    http://timeforabucketlist.blogspot.com/
    http://imagesinthought.blogspot.com/
    http://the-old-story-tree.blogspot.com/
    http://bagladythoughts.blogspot.com/

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  11. Funny story! I'm not afraid of mice, but I don't especially like to see them scampering about! My brother-in-law (6'6" tall) is deathly afraid of mice. One day, long ago, he was laying on the floor watching TV. A little mouse scampered by along the wall. He saw it, and within 2 seconds was standing up on the coffee table yelling "Mouse! I saw a mouse! Kill it!!!" I laughed at him.

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