How Many, for Heavens Sake!

Tough, but we're hard up against an unpleasant realization that what we at first took to be a minor invasion is in reality an invasion of major proportions. Where we thought there might possibly be one teeny, weeny, fur-cuddly mouse in our house there appears to be well, might there be legions? The mind boggles. Who knew?

There was the first one, and to our innocent imagination, the only one that had ventured by accident into the garage. So we thoughtfully lifted the garage door and left it ajar overnight so it might find its cute little way back out again into the wild, where it most surely belongs.

Hoped it would have the good sense to leave. But surprise! there it was again. All right, winter's on the cusp and it would find itself a dry warm little place somewhere (one of our boots?) to hibernate over winter. It's happened before. We'd no cause to suspect otherwise.

But then, surprise, surprise! That scratching sound overhead which we'd never before heard signalled the presence of what else? a mouse! In the attic, no less. No mean feat to venture upward from the garage to the attic of the house. That's three stories of determined venturing. How, in the name of heaven? I guess that's another story, one the mice won't share with us.

So, reluctantly, you've no idea how very reluctantly, the traps were set. One tiny body retrieved the following day; mark one trap absent. The following day, two more little bodies, plus another revealed with the missing trap. We were obviously onto an unfortunate bonanza up there of shelter, but where was the food and water source? These intrepid mice travelling to and from the attic to the out-of-doors on a daily basis to stock up?

The following day another two mice. Of the total two of the little creatures appeared to be more heavily weighted than the others. Conceivably pregnant females. The better to populate your attic, you see. Forgive us, for we know what we do, but feel we have no other choice. But we cannot go on forever murdering these innocent little creatures of nature.

Back to the drawing board, and the memory of the summer months when we'd thought it so adorable to see a succession (of days) of mice leaping easily from the driveway into the mouth of the downspout. We waited to see them emerge and they did not, although we could hear them scrabbling upward. Well, upward indeed, up the length of the downspout to gain the roof and from there entrance.

So, sleeves of wire netting were fashioned to place over the four downspouts. That should spell the end to these entrance points, we think. We hope. I daresay, we hope.