For years we have enjoyed feeding the wild birds but the one thing that always was a problem were the squirrels. Now for years my husband - Aka "Mr Fix-It" - was on a one man crusade to figure out a way to keep the little buggers off the feeders.
As frustrating as it was at times it was quite comical, his ideas ranged from using an old plastic snow saucer - very attractive and that's sarcasm in case you missed it - to sitting on the patio and watching what branch they jumped from then running with the loppers and cutting the branch off - picture palm trees in New England.
Needless to say we eventually started using feeders with an outside cage but I know right about now you're more than likely saying "What has this got to do with a Mouse". Well actually nothing but stay with me there is a motive to my madness it's one word "Determination" that's something my husband has in abundance, he's not one to let anything defeat him.
We live in an old house - built around 1800 something - and live in New England so it stands to reason there are mice around, so to see them is not some startling surprise, except when one begins showing up inside the house.
The story begins one night as I'm sitting in bed looking at my laptop and my husband is looking at his computer when all of a sudden a tiny little brown mouse runs out from under my side of the bed. At first I'm thinking I just imagined it until it came out from under the dresser and disappeared under the bed again. I mention this to my husband and he begins looking around but the little guy is no where to be found.
Fast forward a few nights, this time he's in bed asleep when the mouse reappears from under the bed runs under the dresser then back under the bed - keep in mind our Shelties are both in the room in fact the mouse ran right past one of them who was sleeping on the floor - and disappears again. After filling my husband in the next morning he start investigating and discovers a large crack in the wall of our closet and assuming - I always say "Never assume anything" - this is where he's coming from he gets his handy-dandy expandable spray foam and seals up the hole.
A week or so goes by and we say OK problem solved no more mouse but of course you know what's coming. As we are watching TV one night guess who runs through the livingroom into the closet of my office, Mr. Mouse. Shortly thereafter he runs right back through the room and once again disappears - Oh, and I'll mention again that our two dogs are sleeping right there on the rug and Shelties are supposed to have a great sense of smell.
Next day it's off to investigate once more and an extremely large crack is discovered in the hall closet, not really sure how we've lived here this long and never noticed it but no matter Mr. Fix-It's on the case. Because the crack is so big - goes from floor to ceiling - he decides to put a two-by-four piece of wood in the hole to seal it up.
OK, now we're good it's been close to a month and neither of us has seen anything, unfortunately at dinner one night my husband makes mention of this which of course means - and I'm sure you don't need any hints to know what's coming - we're going to see the mouse. Well sure enough the next night while again watching TV I catch him out of the corner of my eye running into our bedroom and several minuets later he runs back through into the kitchen to once again disappear.
As we discover the next day in the pantry there is a pipe that runs down into the basement which has a large space around it on the floor so it's time for more foam. After finishing this my husband then proceeds to check every lower cabinet for any possible entrance, he only finds a space for the water pipe under the sink. Even though we both agreed that there would be no way for the mouse to get out from under there he foamed it anyway.
This final foaming took place a couple of weeks ago and - I know I'm going out on a limb here - so far we haven't seen our little friend. Even though this has been a bit annoying at times I will say he was really cute to watch zipping around the rooms but I'd rather watch him zipping around outside not inside the house.
So here we stand, has Mr. Fix-It finally outsmarted the mouse well only time will tell but he's ready with his can of expandable spray foam.
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