That's One Ugly Mouse!

That's One Ugly Mouse!

There is a constant battle between humans and the others that exist where we live, both seen and unseen. Like the ants that show up mercilessly every May and make their surprise appearances in the main bath, my office and the kitchen at the most unexpected times. These large insects do not march two-by-two, hurrah, hurrah, in our house. Instead they lie waiting for me to come into a room, dart out at the most unexpected times and then scramble for their lives as I madly try to get rid of them. I know they're laughing at me like this is some twisted game of theirs! But if scaring me gives these simple insects a bit of fun in their mundane lives, then I can be a good sport.

Then there are the four-legged creatures that love our back garage by the pool that is also used for storage while the front garage houses two of our cars and so many unseen inhabitants. Every spring, my husband sets up several traps in both garages and when he arrives homes from work, his first order of business is to purge these traps of their contents. We love our feline and canine furry friends but we do recognise that we have to keep the mouse population from locating their outside residences to the interior of our house and mouse traps are a necessary evil.

Although our garage is meant for two cars, it is a very tight squeeze. We have a stack of firewood on the side where I park my car so that the wood is dry and accessible in the winter. This is also where a mousetrap is strategically placed as mice love hiding in the nooks and crannies of the stacked pile. Although I take care of any job that comes my way, I absolutely draw the line at joining in the process of the daily carcass removal. So even looking at the mousetraps on my way in and out of the garage makes me shudder.

As I was leaving for work one morning this last spring, I noticed that another poor victim had succumb to the lure of the trap placed on the ground by my driver's side door.  I tried not to look at the poor thing and drove away quickly without a backward glance. I came home later and as the garage door was opening, I noticed that the trap had moved a considerable distance and was now almost at the edge of the garage door. I shivered as I recognised that the poor thing was attempting a getaway and although I did my best not to look at it, it was like a horror show where my eyes automatically went to what I didn't want to see. Even though I probably only glanced at the trap for a hundredth of a second, my brain registered that its captive's head was strangely large and pointed. An odd looking mouse indeed!

When my husband arrived home, he immediately came into the house with the most incredulous expression on his face. It turned out that he had just removed a toad from the mousetrap in the garage. I felt terrible! I should have removed that "mouse" when I saw it. But there was no way I was touching the trap and taking over that specific duty!

The good news was, that despite being caught in the trap for a few hours, the toad was absolutely fine. Upon his release, he scrambled into the underbrush never to be seen again. Since that fateful day, the trap by my car has now been moved so that I don't have to look at another creature's untimely demise, toad or rodent alike! Not sure why the toad was in our garage or how he made it there as the door is usually closed. I don't enjoy watching the cute face of a mouse peer up at me helplessly or the ugly toad's mug either! But trap or no trap, mice and toads create a much more pleasant picture when they are seen running or hopping freely in the field far, far away from our garage!

Lolita Hale