displaced mouse in the house

you may remember our rat sightings in the kitchen/dining room a month or so ago. called the rat people, who pulled up the entire front deck and screwed steel sheets over found accesses, replaced the wood boards, and said good day. no more rats would come in, so we just needed to catch the freeloading one already here. first, the search for a friend/neighbor who would dispose of mr rat’s belly-up carcass if he met his demise in the regular trap (thanks len). set out two regular and two humane traps every night after the dogs went to sleep and picked them up every morning before the dogs woke up.

no need, though, because our rat was smart and wily and wouldn’t sully himself with plebeian tastes for peanut butter and lunch meats. he did love cookies though, eating through the cardboard box to grab one. still avoided the trap directly in front of the cookie.

rat people came back out to tell us what we were doing wrong with the traps (nothing) and found a few holes that the rat could access to reach the basement so he could come and go as he pleased. more steel plates. mr rat, seen no more.

fast forward to yesterday, working in my office, thought i saw something across the room, but figured it was just my winter-keeping-warm-always-on-cap getting in the way. kept working. a few minutes later, a creature definitely crossed the room. i stood up, grabbed the snacks from my desk, and closed the door to my office. couldn’t tell if it was a rat or mouse, so out came the old rat trap and humane mouse traps.

last night, watching a game in the living room, we heard something knocking against the door to my office. the dogs started whining, and i figured, ok, mr mouse rat (get that parks & rec reference?) will eventually find his way to the food in the trap. silly me.

set up another three humane mouse traps and had face-to-face encounters with our cute rodent, who appears not attracted to peanut butter also (are chevy chase mice/rats evolving?). he’s a mature dude, so i thought, ok, maybe some swiss cheese and beef jerky. obviously can’t get out of the office (how’d he get in? probably in the house and then went into the office by mistake?) cause he just keeps running around in there. boba is going crazy.

suggestions?

and hah, the irony of spending over $300 on Tuesday to treat satch’s hedgehog at the vet for a growth on her (in the process found out his) belly isn’t lost on me. marxe and luis are very happy that frieda is a trans hedgehog. she looks like mr mouse rat, with lots of extra spikes.

oh, and here’s a picture of Gritty serving a white house feast. just for the hell of it. comment from marxe’s hockey group: gritty would have more class.

update: Friday morning, and four empty traps.