Mouse pad!?

Okay, it had been a couple weeks since I’d heard scratching in the walls. And in spite of the fancy traps I bought, I never caught a mouse.

Good news, right?

Well I certainly took it as good news! And as the sweet halcyon days without mice grew in number my brain used a combination of revisionist history and “mis-remembering” to spin the events of the last month. That and the absence of any physical evidence made it possible to, consciously or unconsciously, downplay the significance the sounds I’d heard to the point that I’d pretty much convinced myself that I didn’t have mice.

Well, at least none on the main floor. In the attic? Yeah, whatever! But not in the main living area and certainly not in my bedroom!

Unfortunately, I got a hard dose of reality last night. You know the saying “reality bites?” Well apparently it also shreds... as in, shreds things into a thousand tiny pieces! Things like, packages of Aveeno Soothing Bath Treatment—made, as it turns out, with 100% Colloidal Oatmeal.

Yeah, I opened the bottom drawer of the “built-in” between the bedrooms and found an inch of confetti style “rat shred” covering bottom. It seriously looked like the inside of a hamster cage!

So now I’m left with a couple frightening revelations.

#1) Since the “built-in” is in part of the hallway which (being in a small house) becomes part of my bedroom when the door is shut. I’m inclined to think that I probably did feel a mouse run over me the other night.

#2) Apparently as recently as two weeks ago, the most edible thing in my house was a health and beauty product.

Good times...