Real mouse in my house

cloud_shade

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A couple of hours ago, I noticed Zek whizzing past me with a real mouse in his mouth. He dropped it in the computer room, and I've been in here ever since trying to catch the darned thing. The first couple of times I brought Zek into the room, he flushed it out, but I wasn't fast enough to catch it or see which way it went. The last time I brought him in the room, he kept going to the places were the mouse was. The mouse isn't in those spots anymore (I checked carefully), and he's not acting as frantic as he did earlier. I don't know how much damage he did to the mouse, but it was still able to run quickly the last time we spooked it. I'm ready to go to bed (actually I was ready more than an hour ago) but I"m afraid to do so with the mouse still loose. Any thoughts or advice?
 

rescuecatsrule

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Mice won't hurt you.

I'm sure your cat will be quick enough to catch it, if not you might want to put a mouse trap down. Shut your cat out of the room the mouse trap is in though, you don't want to catch the wrong animal!
 

tab

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i have a humane trap for just these occasions. tabitha brings the odd mouse in, although last time it was my husband!

he had brought a pack of dog biscuits in from the shed and when he tipped them up to go into the container, a mouse jumped out!

now i can just about deal with tabby bringing them in but i sure hope my husband doesn't make a habit of it!

anyway, try the trap if you can get one. bit of tasty food in it, mouse gets trapped and then you can safely release him outside.
 
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cloud_shade

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Hmm. I don't have a trap (this is only the second mouse I've ever had to deal with and the last one was dead when I found it). I'd rather not have my cat kill the mouse since I have a phobia of dead things and I really don't think I could handle a dismembered mouse. The boys are becoming a bit insistent about dinner time though and going to bed, so I may have to give up and try before work. I have it confined to a single room right now, but that happens to be where the preferred litterboxes are--I think I'll have to move at least one of the litterboxes out of the room for the day.
 

callista

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Originally Posted by tab

i have a humane trap for just these occasions. tabitha brings the odd mouse in, although last time it was my husband!
I just had the funniest image of Tabitha dragging your husband in, dangling from her mouth!...

One mouse alone isn't a problem--it's when you have two that the trouble starts! Most big grocery and hardware stores have humane traps, if you don't like the usual mouse traps. I'm not sure how well the "humane" kind works; but if you don't like killing mice if you don't have to, then that's your best bet.
 

katachtig

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I think you will be fine. I remember one night I heard Petunia running around which was unusual for her. I turned on the light and all I saw was big gray blur chasing little gray blur (I didn't have my glasses on). The mouse ended up behind the dresser. I spent the night in another room because I didn't want to wake up with a mouse sitting beside me or a present of a mouse from Petunia. Never did figure out what happened to it.
 
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cloud_shade

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

The mouse won't hurt you. It's more afraid of you than you are of it.
It's really more of a gut reaction than a logical fear. Dead things won't hurt me either (being dead and all, they can't do much), but that doesn't stop my absolute terror of them. With the mouse, I'm not really afraid it will hurt me, but when it runs out from under something, I can help being startled. It's so fast that I don't have time to react much. That said, a mouse will bite if it's frightened and cornered (which is my goal in trying to capture it), but according to the ER vet in the town where I went to college, they don't carry rabies so I'm not overly concerned about getting bitten.

I just let Zek into the room again. I think the mouse is either dead or found a way out--Zek's just lying there on the floor resting rather than hunting it down like this morning. Now I'm going to be terrified of finding a dead mouse in my house until I actually find it and dispose of it. Any idea how long until it starts to smell? I'll probably buy a humane mousetrap just in case it isn't dead and since Zek may find another mouse in the future.
 

yayi

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Originally Posted by tab

tabitha brings the odd mouse in, although last time it was my husband!
Originally Posted by Callista

I just had the funniest image of Tabitha dragging your husband in, dangling from her mouth!...
It's exactly what I imagined too.


Originally Posted by cloud_shade

Any idea how long until it starts to smell?
Well, I live in the tropics. The smell of decay comes pretty fast. Depends really on the humidity and temperature.
 

mezlo

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Originally Posted by cloud_shade

I have it confined to a single room right now
I hate to be pessimistic, but you probably can't be more wrong. It's nigh impossible to confine a mouse anywhere it doesn't want to be.

Mez
 
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cloud_shade

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Originally Posted by mezlo

I hate to be pessimistic, but you probably can't be more wrong. It's nigh impossible to confine a mouse anywhere it doesn't want to be.

Mez
I should rephrase--I had it confined to a room last night, but even knowing it probably hadn't escaped the room (since I was in it at the time and I would have seen it head for the door), Zek stopped being interested in looking for it. There were only a couple of directions it could have gone as it ran away from the door, and it may have ended up in one of my boxes full of stuff. I dread having to go through those boxes. If it is still in the house, it's probably no longer alive since neither cat has shown any signs of hearing or smelling it since last night.
 

tab

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Originally Posted by Callista

I just had the funniest image of Tabitha dragging your husband in, dangling from her mouth!...
Originally Posted by yayi

It's exactly what I imagined too.
oops! now that would be something else, considering he's 6ft 4!
 
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cloud_shade

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I never did find the mouse. I really, really hope it found a way to escape. I'm to freaked out to look through the boxes it could have crawled into.
 
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