Kevin – Thursday. Up early again at 5 AM, breakfast downed, but … then as Denny is about to close the door so we can start biking, she sees a tiny little head peeking out from a cabinet. She insists I put a panel over the cabinet opening to trap the little critter once our trap was set – even though there are wall penetrations a-plenty. No telling where in the RV this mouse can get to.
BACKGROUND: MANY years ago, the young Henson’s lived in a double wide trailer in the middle of an Arizona cotton field. At bedtime there was the pitter-pat of field mice all around in the ceiling, walls and no doubt on the floors, under the bed – you get the picture. Five mouse traps were purchased. We would lie awake until all five had tripped proving the nightly catch allotment of mice had been completed. Once all were tripped, we’d roll over and go to sleep. In the morning I’d clean the traps, rebait them and reset them for that night. Rinse. Repeat. We are world class mousers. But still.
After a disastrous truck engine destruction a few years ago by a nesting squirrel who chewed through the computer cables, we’re a little leery of allowing this mouse to live another day. Just too much time to find things to chew on. Electrical, plumbing and propane systems in particular.
This little guy? Once we knew to look, it was clear he (she?) had outdone himself/herself. We keep the RV clean, but this mouse had left ‘evidence’ everywhere. How we didn’t notice it at breakfast defies explanation. A whole box of facial tissues shredded. A plastic peanut can lid chewed through and salty feasting on such. The clean dish strainer was no longer clean along with all its newly soiled pots, pans, dishes, eating ware. Etc.
Denny and I rush off to Torrington (25 miles one way), purchase a package of 4 traps, rush back to the RV and set the traps with … what else … cheese. We hadn’t seen our guest again, but just as we are about to pull out, Denny hears one of the traps snap and tells me she thinks mousca is morte.
Why were we moving? We had planned to stay at the Hawk Springs site another day, but with SO MUCH DAMAGE and ‘evidence’ left by this one little mouse in just one night, we needed water to clean – lots of it, and the 40 gallon clean water tank was already half empty. We also needed a laundry facility and that meant going to Torrington. Hawk Springs population was 47 at the last census. No laundry there.
The rest of the day was laundry, cleaning the RV top to bottom, securing a new campground spot in Torrington, finding and plugging a few holes in the RV’s undercarriage, etc., etc., etc.
Our new location is about a half-mile from the cattle auction yard. The auctioneers are fun to listen to whilst eating dinner. I also did some maintenance on the Highlander. The bikes need to be cleaned with a water blaster hose. There’s SO much dirt and grit in the gears. But a really big thunderstorm was bearing down on us and we ran out of time to do things away from the RV. We hunkered down inside with winds gusting probably close to 50 mph. One can imagine the mayhem that would ensue if we were living in a tent or wagon.
Once things settled down, I spent the evening catching up on blogs – except for today’s mouse experience. I just couldn’t face it yet. It was too immediate to laugh about – but I’m writing this 48 hours later and now, it’s kind of funny – but only a little bit.
