A Mouse in the House

Late Sunday afternoon, our ordeal began. Kara thought it might be a fun idea to make a maze for the mice.  She first took Oreo out, and he did the maze and got his treat with no problem. Then it was Frappe's  turn. (A.K.A mama mouse)   She went through the maze, and got her treat. When it was time to get in her cage though, she had other plans.  She jumped out of Kara's hands, and ran to Oreo's cage.  She took cover underneath the chairs in the family  room.  Kara thought quickly, and barricaded her in with various items that were in the family room. This was about the time I walked in the room, and I saw the look of panic on Kara's face.  I have several foam boards that we used to block off the entire room.  The family room is right off the kitchen, so it only took four boards.  We were very worried that if she was able to escape the room, one of our cats might find her.  We had several close calls where we almost caught Frappe, but she would slip away at the last second. She also climbed Oreo's cage quite a few times, like she was trying to get inside.  He was climbing it too, but on the inside.  Luckily they were not near each other long enough that she could get pregnant again.. (at least I hope not!!!)  As long as we could see where she was, we were hopeful that we would catch her.. Then around 7 p.m. she disappeared, and we did not see her again. 

About that time, we brought in the live trap we had in the garage. We thought that if we could not catch her before bed, maybe we could catch her if  she tried to get something to eat during the night.   We locked up the cats for the night, and set the trap.  Early in the morning Kara was devastated to find the trap empty. It looked like the food had been moved, but there was no mouse.   Kara was so upset, that I allowed her to stay home from school for  the day. She had a headache, and an upset stomach.  I knew she would not have a good day at school, worrying about her mouse at home. Around 11 a.m., I heard a happy yell from the family room.  She had spotted Frappe as she ran behind the TV table.  That was the first sighting of her in 15 hours! We were confused though, we knew where she went, but there was no sign of her anywhere.   Kara did not see her again for several hours, and began to doubt that she actually saw her.. Then around 7 p.m., she appeared once more.  This time we were able to find out where she was going.  There was a small hole in the cardboard backing of our old entertainment center that we are using as shelving.  She was hiding out underneath the entertainment center!  She had been right under our noses the entire time, only we did not know it.  This was a good news, bad news situation. Good that we knew where she was hiding, and that she was definitely still in the family room.  It was also bad,  due to the size of the entertainment center there was no way we could reach her to get her out. We had to wait until she came to us.  We were in luck though.. For about an hour she was very active.  She kept going into the trap, so we thought we had her.   There was just one problem, she was too light to trigger the trap.  Kara tied a string to the trigger hoping to manually set it off if needed.   Then around 11 p.m., I heard the words I was waiting to hear..    

"Mom! I caught her!" 

The funny thing is how she caught her.  We had her cage open nearby where she was hiding out, just in case she decided to she wanted to go home.   After multiple misses with the live trap, she was caught when she climbed into her cage.  Kara was close enough to the cage that she was able to close the door in time.  Frappe seemed happy to be home. She went up to her nest, and within a few minutes took a nap.   We were happy she was no longer on the loose, and  the cats were happy they were no longer confined to the bedroom.   We all slept a little bit easier last night, including Frappe.  Hopefully no more adventures for her!