I KILLED MRS. FRISBY!!!! Poor little creature :( :(

Mrs. Frisby---R.I.P.

Ever since I found that first little mouse poo on my kitchen counter I knew that I was living amongst uninvited creatures once again. Creatures just seem to find me. For some reason they know I don't eat them, kill them or mind them. I have lived with such creatures as raccoons in the chimney, squirrels in the attic and the house, mice in the walls and even snakes in the basement. The snake was the freakiest but my neighbor got him out in a hurry. Of course I am especially a rodent lover having raised two lovely rats a few years back. Finding mouse poo on the kitchen counter though is going a bit too far. This was going to have to stop. It all started when I found holes in my pumpkin seed and soy nut bags from the bulk section at Copps. I picked them up the next morning and they were full of holes and then I saw the poo. Eeek! Mice are cute but not where I eat!

I decided to get one of those live traps at the hardware store and set it up in the kitchen. I baited it with the soy nuts but nothing! For weeks no catch, yet I was finding mouse poo on the counter whenever I would leave bits of food out. Ok, well, I wasn't sure what to do until one night when I saw her! Right on the kitchen sink was Mrs. Frisby! She was standing there looking at me and then when I yelled she ran down the side of the counter and smooshed her fat little self flat and went right under the door to the basement! Sneaky little creature! At least I knew where she was coming from.

Mrs. Frisby was aptly named after my favorite literary heroine--Mrs. Frisby from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. In this lovely little story she actually escaped from a cage in a farmer's kitchen and saved the day! Well she did much more than that but that was part of it!

Read it! It's a great book!

So each time I came and went I decided to put tin foil under the door to block her from coming back. For some reason I didn't put the trap in the basement. Not sure why. So one night I was out after dark and forgot to block the door but immediately blocked it when I came in. Well, it wasn't five seconds later while putting the tea kettle on that out of the corner of my eye I see a little mouse! Mrs. Frisby had found her way in when I was gone and was now trapped inside. She saw me and ran under the refrigerator. I opened the door to the basement and propped up a paper bag so she would have to jump in there first to escape! I thought maybe I could grab the bag and then get her outside. I sat in silence on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes waiting for her to appear but she never came. Finally I just unblocked the door and went to bed thinking she would eventually leave and go back to the basement or wherever she was living.

Well, about this time was when I had my little accident in Iowa and did not come home for several days. The day I got home I did look in the live trap but there was nothing there. I then went to recuperate at my parent's house though did come every other day to check my email here as my parents don't have a computer. I periodically checked the trap but nothing was there. I figured Mrs. Frisby was living happily with her babies somewhere and was about to completely invade my house one of these days but I wasn't really worried.

The day I moved back home I noticed a raunchy odor and thought to myself--"I better take the trash out!" The next day it seemed to disappear but the day after that it was worse and then the day after even worse. I noticed the smell was very strong when I got near the floor to look under the fridge to see if I had some old food hiding under there and realized the smell was coming from the live trap! OH NO!!!  I didn't even want to look but as I peered through the vents I saw a motionless shadow! OMG! NOOO!!!!! After all the effort to save Mrs. Frisby she had died of starvation in the live trap!! Poor little Mrs. Frisby! Had I wanted to kill her I would have bought a regular mouse trap and snapped her to save her the suffering!  I felt awful and went running out of the house freaking out with the trap in my hand! I opened up the lid and there she was--just looking like she was sleeping (as you can see from the photo). She looked like a healthy little mouse but alas she was not meant to live!  

Poor little sweet creature

I gave her a proper burial near the flowers and weeds growing near the house. Poor Mrs. Frisby. I can only hope that her life was good while it lasted........