A Mouse in my Bathtub!!

I'll start with this funny story first (as the one that follows is quite Serious.)

Last week late one evening I headed into the bathroom to get ready for the night. Turning on the light set a wee bitty mouse in my bathtub into a panic! He (or she) raced around trying to run up the sides of the tub - but they were too slippery.

I didn't have the nerve to pick up mousie with my bare hand, so I just grabbed a bottle with cleaning fluids in it and sprayed mousie hard - no matter which direction he ran trying to find a way out. Maybe he'd drown? Oh yes, I also turned on the taps, both hot and cold water. After a few inches of depth of water, I stopped. I didn't want to see him clamber over the side, and escape to where!?

I began to wonder how long this little war was going to last..! Then I remembered that when I catch a mouse with my sticky traps they don't die right a way but they can't get away. (At least I hope not.) So I've set aside a large yellow margarine tub under the kitchen table and I just turn it over the mouse, trap n' all. Sometimes I put a weight on it to make sure the mouse (if a Daddy mouse) can't lift the tub and cast it off.

I rushed to the kitchen, picked up the yellow tub and raced back to the bathtub, slamming down over wee little mousie. Oh-oh, he wasn't attached to a stick trap so the whole tub started moving.

Quickly I grabbed the first heavy object I saw - a bottle of detergent, set it down on the tub, and sighed with relief when it stopped moving.

I normally have my baths in the morning, but decided I would not have a bath until I'd disposed of mousie, and scrubbed the whole tub THOROUGHLY!

In the morning I couldn't resist having a peek. Um... mousie was on his haunches and seemed to be busy studying some of his loose hairs between his tiny front paws.

"Okay," I said quietly to myself, "I'm NOT picking you up with my bare hands, so stay there all day."

When I checked again at bedtime that night, he had fallen over and was no longer breathing. So I picked up an empty toilet paper core in the waste basket, scooped him up with that, then as he was about to fall out the other end, I squeezed the tube a bit to keep him inside, and carried him to the garbage bin in the back porch.

The next day was Saturday, and yes, I sure did a very thorough scrubbing of the tub, rinsing it hard too!

Now it is my tub again. . . .!

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