The Great Mouse Detectives

Warning... this post contains gross stuff and is not for the weak stomach. Ok it might not be that bad, please don't think less of me or my now sparkling clean house =)


It all started when Jerry let a mouse into my house and wasn't able to catch it before it ran behind a wall and disappeared. Coincidentally, Disney Channel aired "The Great Mouse Detective," which became a favorite of Ash and Rach. So Ashlin was excited to help her friend Johnny track down the mouse Uncle Jerry let into the house. So I said, yes you guys go down stairs and find that mouse! This was just so I could clean my floors without disturbance. I could hear them playing "Mouse detectives"
Well we caught that mouse early the next morning, but while disposing of him, I dropped the bag he was in and he ran away. But we were outside when it happened so I hoped he would find a neighbor house to go into (jk Amber!). Anyway... end of mouse troubles right?

A couple days later.... I had some friends over for a playdate. All the kids went downstairs to play in the playroom while we chatted. Suddenly Ashlin and her friend come running up the stairs saying they found a mouse in their toys with a very excited voice. My initial reaction was "oh are you guys playing mouse detective?" To which they responded, "Yeah he is moving through our toys." My heart sunk!! "WAIT, a REAL mouse?" "YEAH!".

So we run downstairs to find a mouse in the middle of the toys!! I quickly put a bucket over it, and my friends and I are trying to figure out how to get rid of him. As we are trying different things, the girls (who are all standing on a little table) suddenly yell out, "There is another one!!" pointing to the couch. So we all turn and sure enough there is another mouse. I am able to get another bucket over him. At this point I am beside myself. All I see is a huge mess of toys (every toy bucket had literally been thrown on the floor) that a mouse had run through the middle of!! Not to mention how embarrassed I was to have my friends witness (but actually very grateful to them and their support!) me at a state of shock and stress.

Needless to say, the party was over. Brett came home from work to dispose of the mice. Ashlin's comment to Brett was, "DAD, TAYLEN WAS LIKE AH A RAT, AND I WAS LIKE NO A MOUSE, AND WE WERE LIKE MOM THERE IS A MOUSE IN THE TOYS, AND THEN WE WERE LIKE AHHH! OH IT WAS SOO FUN!"
I went to the store to buy lots of cleaning products and proceeded to clean EVERY toy and every corner of that playroom. Wash the love sac cover and every blanket, and any toy that couldn't be put in the bath tub.
Then we set traps, LOTS of traps.
I wish the story ends there... but it doesn't.

For the next couple of days I am monitoring EVERYTHING checking every trap checking any place for any more signs of mice. Nothing! So just when I decide the mice in the basement were a fluke thing... I go into the kitchen at 1:30 in the morning and hear the sound of chewing behind my cabinet. GRRRR. To make a long stressful week shorter... yesterday we caught the little booger!! We had finally decided to try the snap traps which I didn't really want to use, but became desperate. And Brett kept moving them around. Last night, we finally heard the SNAP! So we go out to see which trap got him, and he is laying away from the trap. And Brett goes, "Well, he is definitely dead." walks past to get something to pick him up, the mouse starts running away!! which makes Brett jump and me laugh until the mouse started running towards me. But we caught him, and he is gone!!! Hopefully we will never need mouse detectives again!