Why you sneaky little mouse!
About two months ago, I noticed Little Red, our one chicken who lives by herself, eating a lot of food. I mean, going through a coffee can of food every other day! How can one sweet elderly chicken eat so much food?? Especially since she's starting to slow down egg production, and she kind of just scoots around these days.
Then, I noticed a little tunnel up through the ground near her food dish. A-HA! Turns out I've been feeding all the mice in Central Oregon.... providing a lovely buffet for them at no charge. How do I know this? Because Emil set up traps in her pen and the adjacent pen and has caught over 25 mice over the past few weeks. Yep. 25 well-fed mice. He disposes of the mouse near the fence, and some unknown creature enjoys a mouse for brunch.
Finally, I had a sneaky suspicion there were mice living above the fridge on a shelf, so we set up traps. One night, we heard it trip, so Emil got up and took care of the little fellow. After he settled back into bed, the other one tripped. Goodness Gracious! After resetting the traps, we thought the remaining mice had moved on to greener pastures, but lo and behold the other night, there was a clatter in the kitchen sink. A mouse tripped the trap and flipped down into the kitchen sink. You know what I did?? Nothing. Stayed in the recliner because I thought a spoon or something had fallen from the drying dish rack. Emil was on the phone with his parents when this happened....took the mouse in the trap and put it outside the door until he finished the call. When he went to dispose of the mouse, a feral cat took off running with the mouse and trap. The mouse, okay...but please return the trap!
Seriously, never a dull moment here.
About two months ago, I noticed Little Red, our one chicken who lives by herself, eating a lot of food. I mean, going through a coffee can of food every other day! How can one sweet elderly chicken eat so much food?? Especially since she's starting to slow down egg production, and she kind of just scoots around these days.
Then, I noticed a little tunnel up through the ground near her food dish. A-HA! Turns out I've been feeding all the mice in Central Oregon.... providing a lovely buffet for them at no charge. How do I know this? Because Emil set up traps in her pen and the adjacent pen and has caught over 25 mice over the past few weeks. Yep. 25 well-fed mice. He disposes of the mouse near the fence, and some unknown creature enjoys a mouse for brunch.
Finally, I had a sneaky suspicion there were mice living above the fridge on a shelf, so we set up traps. One night, we heard it trip, so Emil got up and took care of the little fellow. After he settled back into bed, the other one tripped. Goodness Gracious! After resetting the traps, we thought the remaining mice had moved on to greener pastures, but lo and behold the other night, there was a clatter in the kitchen sink. A mouse tripped the trap and flipped down into the kitchen sink. You know what I did?? Nothing. Stayed in the recliner because I thought a spoon or something had fallen from the drying dish rack. Emil was on the phone with his parents when this happened....took the mouse in the trap and put it outside the door until he finished the call. When he went to dispose of the mouse, a feral cat took off running with the mouse and trap. The mouse, okay...but please return the trap!
Seriously, never a dull moment here.
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