Monday, April 14, 2008

Hunters of the North

As I may have mentioned before, as we were attempting to sell the house we discovered we had mice.

At first we thought it was just a few. Turns out the few were those looking to colonize the garage after the shed got over-crowded. We hadn't gone to the shed all winter; there's not a lot of need for lawn-mowers in December, so we had no idea it had turned into mouse heaven. It was sheltered and dry and had three bags of grass seed in it. Apparently for mice, this is as good as it gets.

So, when Way Cooler finally got to the shed and discovered the kingdom of mouse he began the arduous task of mouse eviction. However, some weren't going down without a fight and made it to the outer colony of the garage. Slowly but surely we dispatched those ones too, except one.

She was a feisty one. Never mess with a pregnant chick, be it mortal or mouse. She set up camp in our Christmas tree and when we vacuumed that nest out she found another house.

But by this point, the long dormant hunter part of my husband's genetic make-up was fully functioning. He was not to be bested by a pregnant female, at least not one that he didn't have to share a bed with. (He's a wise hunter and was often bested by this female when she was pregnant.)

It became his personal mission to find and exterminate this rodent.

Finally the weekend before we moved my dad was up and was helping Way Cooler move some boxes in the garage and they heard a squeak. Many, many boxes were then moved but the squeaking continued. They took this as a personal challenge.

Finally, they located her. She had hidden in one of my boxes of posters left-over from my teaching days. Flushed with victory they carried the whole box out of the garage. But what to do now? They couldn't let her escape! The problem was we are city folks and our neighbors wouldn't take kindly to them blasting away at a picture box with a .22.

Fortunately necessity is the mother of invention.

I took that particular moment to look out the front door to see how things were going. There, on my front lawn my dad and husband were beating a mouse to death, with rolls of my Christmas wrapping paper from Costco. I don't ever think I will be able to look at those snowmen the same way again.

But at least the hunters were victorious.

7 comments:

KnittinChick said...

Now everyone is going to be paranoid about the type of wrapping paper that they receive from you.

Those little beasts are so insidious that they bring out the Hunter in anyone!

Bargainista said...

That is funny!
Good job you just happened to look out the window and get in on the final showdown...and we get to hear the story!
Mice are only nice as stuffed toys!

Tez said...

AHAHAHA! He was bested eh! I'm sure he knows it too.

Nicole - Life in Progress said...

That is so funny. My husband, also a hunter, would have been equally as determined. I, on the other hand, would have hidden in my closet until he could assure me the mouse was gone. I HATE rodents of any kind!

granola_granny said...

I laughed so hard when I read your blog that I got into yet another coughing frenzie. It brought back memories of the time we tried to open our garage door and couldn't because while we had been out our boys discovered mice in the garage. They too had the hunter instinct and piled all the garage contents in front the door while they chased those unfortunate rodents with hockey sticks and permanently put out their lights.

Rachel said...

This was darlin'! What a great writing style you have, this was a fabulous read.
My hubby is a hunter, too and I got such a thrill out of reading this :-) :-)

JCK said...

Never look at the snowmen the same way again...FUNNY STUFF, HG! Love your posts!