Monday, June 11, 2007


Toilet Mouse!

About a month ago on one of the numerous yahoo groups i belong to, someone posted about a renegade squirrel that had made it's way under their stove or fridge?! The poster was looking for suggestions about what to do to remedy the situation...

Well, this morning i woke up & stumbled into the bathroom only to find a juvenile mouse in my toilet.
He was alive, hanging out above the waterline, twitching his whiskers at me.
I had a horrible headache (pollen/sinus related) so i just flipped the rim of the toilet up, hoping he could then hop out. I then closed the bathroom door, used the other bathroom in the house, took some pain meds & went back to bed.
Got up about 4 hours later, cautiously peeked into the bathroom.
Yep. Still there.
Closed the bathroom door, went about my business.
About an hour later, my housemate/Jillie woke up. (brief aside) Apparently we've been doing, as she puts it "experiments in vampirism without the blood drinking" meaning we've booth been staying up all night & sleeping till 2 or 4 in the afternoon, then repeating this. One of the few perks of being self employed; you can work half days all the time & you even get to pick which 12 hours you want to put in. But i digress.
Jillie is up and about for an hour before i remember the toilet mouse. (my partner/husband Darrell was making his way home from a show this weekend, so no help from the male of the house)
Jill & i discuss options & come up with a plan.
We lock the dogs away at the other end of the house. Clear an escape route from toilet to door. Get the long leather gloves from the studio & pick up a croc (rubber clog/shoe). Ready for "Operation Toilet Mouse"
Wait. We need pics!
Pause for picture taking. (will post as soon as i figure out how to w/ my new to me camera)

Deep breaths, think calm thoughts. Approach toilet, murmuring reassuringly at frightened mouse.
Offer croc as potential sanctuary.
Grateful mouse climbs in & i begin a slow walk towards the open door.
Almost there, the mouse climbs out of shoe & up my arm, towards the gaping opening of the glove.
I think "if i were a frightened mouse, that glove opening would look like a good place to hide"
So, i brush at the mouse with my other hand.
Mouse drops from my arm to the floor & quick quick quick is under the sofa.
So, now the mouse is free, but we are imprisoned with just a bit of worry about whether it made it's way outside or is still lurking under the sofa.
The released dogs are unconcerned about the potential mouse harboring sofa, so we're trying to be as well.
But it's sad, really, to have spent all this time trying to free the mouse only to end up with it *somewhere* in the house.
I'm sure there is a zen parable in this somewhere.
Jill & i (ok, mostly Jill) did come up with some haikus about our adventure which i will now share:
1st haiku about our day:
alive but not calm
the mouse is in the toilet
waiting for our help

2nd haiku:
gloves & rubber shoe
almost to the door, but no
mouse loose in the house

and finally:
3rd haiku/ epilogue
mouse still in the house?
freed from latrine jail
but we are wary

And that is our day, so far at least.
Wishing everyone else a more mouse free day/evening than we have had so far...
Bright Blessings
~Virginia/Amber in WVa

2 comments:

Amy said...

*howls*

ding0 offered this advice for future mouse rescues:

* gloves
* pot
* don gloves
* scoop up mouse with pot
* head to door
* dump mouse
* sterilize/wash/toss pot

gloves and a pot, I
could see these as alternates
for brave mouse rescues

Anonymous said...

At work we had the same thing happen except it was a young BAT. As in with wings. :-) Freaky.