BBs Blog

I was awakened the other morning at 5:30 a.m. by a strange knocking noise that sounded as if it was coming from night stand next to my bed. After I reached over and gave the table a gentle shake the strange knocking stopped. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I got up at what is a more reasonable hour for me I noticed that the statue of a panther I have on the top shelf of that night stand was closer to the edge than usual. As I moved the statue back I noticed the bottom of it was not perfectly flat, nor was it lined with felt like the bottom of some figurines are. Since we had recently had the roof replaced, and the whole house had shuddered at times from the impact of the roofing shingles being tossed on it. I assumed the statue had moved when that was going on, and somehow got to vibrating.

That night I slept soundly and was not awakened by any strange noises. However, the next night, or rather early morning, I was once more awakened from my blissful slumber by a strange rattling noise. I was convinced the noise was coming from the table. Larry said we should check outside and see if something outside was causing it. After finding the grill near the bedroom window loose we assumed the wind had been catching it just right, and that was the source of the strange noise. Larry screwed the vent grill down tight. I went to bed that night convinced my slumber would not be interrupted anymore.

Imagine my surprise, and frustration, when once more I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. by a strange rattling noise. This time there was no doubt in my mind it was coming not only from the night stand, but from the top drawer of said night stand. After shaking the table to get it to quiet down I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I got up later that morning I took the drawer out and discovered evidence that clearly pointed to a mouse being the cause of the noise. I set some traps under and on the table that I hoped would would solve my noisy mouse problem. Though I didn’t really think any mouse would be dumb enough to go into it, I baited the one plastic rectangular cube type trap I had hanging around the house with a cinnamon Triscuit cracker that I smeared a dab of peanut butter on. When I went to bed that night I hoped that if I was going to be awakened by the sound of that mouse, it would be the sound of his little neck snapping in one of the more lethal V traps.

At 1:24 a.m. I awoke to the sound of frantic scratching and mild thumping. Seems at least one mouse was dump enough to go into the cube trap. I turned the overhead light on, looked at the little mouse whose eyes were staring at me in total terror, and thought, “Well, now what?” No way could I leave the trapped mouse on the table with the racket it was making. But, I had no intention of going outside in the middle of the night and possibly getting snake bit while trying to get rid of the mouse. In my infinite blonde wisdom I put the cubed mouse out on the porch room, and decided to let Larry deal with it when he got up.

In his infinite male wisdom Larry first decided to put the trap in the middle of the road, then run over it with the 4 Wheeler. I told him I didn’t care what the hell he did with it as long I never saw that mouse, or stupid trap again. After thinking about it, Larry reconsidered his original plan, and opted for simply throwing the cubed mouse across the road. If the mouse escaped fine. If it didn’t, that was fine too. He lobbed the cubed mouse towards the road, and watched as it bounced several times. The little one way swinging trap door fell off on the last bounce. The mouse, badly addled from all the bouncing did not immediately take advantage of the situation. However, after a few minutes it collected its wits, and scurried from the trap. It was at that point an 18 wheeler came rumbling by. That mouse was leading a charmed life because the 18 wheeler missed flattening the mouse by a couple of inches. The mouse was last seen running hell bent for leather towards the mesquite patch on the other side of the road. I seriously doubt that little mouse will ever want to step foot inside a house again after the experience he had in, and out of mine.