Mamalade

You wouldn’t think such a tiny thing could create such havoc. I still haven’t quite finished putting everything back in order.

It all started when I was wakened one night at some unearthly hour. Oscar was pouncing all around the lounge room. I was feeling too sleepy to investigate.

About a week later, when I opened my a drawer in my kitchen, I wasn’t quite sure, but I thought I saw a little shadow move quickly under the cutlery tray. Maybe a cockroach -  or had I imagined it? I ran hot water over my knife & fork before using them, just in case.

A few days later, I pulled out the drawer and the little shadow darted away again. There was no doubt about it this time - it even had a long tail! Oscar’s mouse! That was the last place I expected it to turn up.

Easily solved, I thought. I took out all the cutlery (and washed it, of course) and replaced it with a mouse trap baited temptingly with a pumpkin seed.

Half an hour later, I heard a snap. Got him!

But no, when I looked the trap had been sprung, but it was empty. Even the pumpkin seed had disappeared. This was one cunning mouse!

At least it was in a confined area, I thought. I gingerly emptied out all four drawers, expecting the mouse to spring out at any moment.

There was no mouse.

Then I discovered there was just the tiniest gap at the top of the unit, just big enough for one tiny mouse to squeeze through. That meant he was now in the cupboards under the kitchen bench. There are no dividing walls in the whole unit. He could be anywhere in there.

It took days to move everything out of those cupboards, because all the crockery had to be washed. Even tins and packets of food had to wiped over. Normally, I would clean out a section at a time, putting things back as I went, but with a mouse still at large, it had to be totally emptied.

The mouse was very elusive, but he had left tracks. Each day brought a new surprise. The boxes of cat food had been chewed through, and the contents scattered. Then I found a packet of cake-mix had been spread the full length of one cupboard, and mixed in with the bran. Next he  sampled some packets of chicken-noodle soup. I was furious when I discovered he’d had my corn chips. I’d only bought them the day before and was looking forward to snacking on them.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t use the kitchen to cook a meal, because all the bench tops and the table were covered in boxes of stuff I had pulled out of the cupboards. Luckily I had a few meals in the freezer. It was frustrating though, because we had a street stall that week, and I couldn’t do any baking for it.

Finally, I emptied out the last cupboard and found - no mouse! The wretch had escaped. There are tiny gaps where the cupboard doors meet in the corners. I have now filled them in with blue tack.

I set traps around the house for about a week (Where the cats couldn’t get into them, of course.) He visited them each night and gratefully took the food I’d left in them. But eventually, his feasting was his undoing. He must have put on enough weight to spring the trap and so he met his end.

So now I have clean tidy kitchen cupboards, but there are still boxes sitting around filled with things I think I can live without. I didn’t put my silver cutlery set back in the drawer. I never use it. A lot of the crockery can go. And I don’t know how I managed to accumulate nine vegetable peelers! It all needs to go out in the shed ready for a jumble sale, but the shed is overflowing and really needs a good clean out before I put anything more into it.

If I tell people about the mouse, they say, “How could you have a mouse when you have two cats!” 

 It’s those darn cats that bring the mice into the house and let them go!