So how strange am I?

Fit_mommy

Fit_mommy

Cathlete
Okay, so I discovered that we had a mouse living amongst us. DH set a couple of traps but to no avail. This was a few days ago. Then this evening we were watching a movie we had rented and all of the sudden out of the corner of our eye we both saw the little mongrel darting up the steps in our house! Sal went upstairs but didn't see it, ofcourse, so he moved one of the traps up to the top of the steps. Originally they were both in the kitchen as that's where our furry friend left "evidence" of his presence. Well, the trap went off about 15 minutes ago. DH disposed of him and now hopefully we are mouse free but here's the wierd part...I feel really bad! I didn't want the little bugger in my house but I also didn't want him dead! :-( I closed the door to the room I am in when the trap went off so that I wouldn't have to see it and I feel a little sick to my stomach now because I hate that we had to kill him...Am I completely strange???

BTW---Our beloved dog Clyde was of NO help here! He must of wanted it to live too because Sal called him upstairs to help him find the mouse when we first saw it and he kept running back downstairs. That's my boy! :+
 
I don't think that sounds strange at all! If it is strange, then you've got a lot of company over in StrangeLand.

I can't kill bugs because I can feel their teensy bones or whatever bugs have crunch and I can't stand that! Fortunately for us, we've trained George and Gracie to alert us to the bug and then they get a treat, Kurt gets the bug, and I turn away.

On the bigger scale of mouse, that is kinda sad. I know it's totally natural, and I've dealt with my share of dead mice (working at summer camp where it's closed all winter, we go up Memorial Day and find them all), but still. Mice are kinda cute when they scurry around.

Go Clyde! He just sounds like the loviest little guy. What a good big brother he'll be.
 
My sister-in-law is like that. She has the hardest time killing them...she does everything in her power not to, but in the end it always comes down to killing the poor thing. I on the other hand have no probalem. We thankfully have a cat that does all the hard work...we live on land and had to get a cat! :D
Sarah
 
You are not strange at all. Last year I noticed little bits of "dirt" here and there around the base boards. I then discovered that we had a mouse in the house when I went downstairs one night and the little bugger ran right past me! The next day when I came home from work I had a surprise in the pantry. It was a mess and the mouse was still in there. DH got home a short time later and we spent over an hour chasing and catching the "cute little mouse". We caught it in a paper grocery bag. DH got in the car and drove to a remote location and let it go. We had a good laugh, I cleaned up the pantry and we thought that was the end of it. I came home the next day to find TWO mice in the pantry and a gigantic mess. We did not feel like chasing more mice around so we went out and bought traps. Got a tip from a neighbor to put peanut butter on the traps. We ended up trapping a total of 6 mice! I did not like it (neither did DH). They really are cute, but after the mess they made in the pantry I was not about to encourage them to stay. We discovered they were getting in behind the stove where the gas line comes in. DH plugged the hole, we got a cat, and now we are rodent free.
 
I guess I am the one standout. I despise mice. They are not cute in any way to me. They give me the creeps when they scurry. If they stay outside, I say live in let live, if they are in my house, their days are numbered!
 
Thanks ladies for making feel a little more "normal". And Jane, I'll bet all in all more people feel the way you do! :)
 
We live in a fairly rural area, so it's not unusual for the field mice to make there way into the house, especially in the Fall, when they're looking for Winter shelter. We have two cats who are approx. 12 years old that like to 'play' with them - they'll catch them in the basement and bring them, still live, upstairs for a 'game'... It's pretty annoying - sometimes they lose them while playing and then we have to deal with catching and disposing of it.

I think they're cute - they have really pretty faces! - but since I have two small children, I am more concerned with the germs and diseases that they may carry. I am at the point where I will save them from the cats if I can, but then I take them outside and release them in the field down the road. DH says they have a path worn back to the house from there... I just can't stand to watch them be killed. DH tries to get them when I'm not around so I don't have to watch while he kills it, but I still get sad when I know that's what he's doing...
 
I'm with you Jane, if one is in my house it will be one dead sucker!


but I will tell you that if you have one don't get the traps that are sticky and they walk across. Now that even makes me sad, because they are stuck to it and still alive! Just give me the of 1,2 snap!!



kim
 
Ugh. I lived in a 250-year-old farmhouse for a while, and the place was just infested with mice. There are "humane" traps that we used to use ("Havahart"?), but I was so grossed out by it I would make the man of the house pick them up. I also had a cat--he used to play with the mice and leave them dead all over the place, but never ate them! However, he did bring me "breakfast" every morning, leaving a "meal" in my gym bag. x(
 
Ummmm I'm with Jane here . In fact funny thing I use to stomp a mouse when I saw one . Now Ive seen so many in traps dead ... Nesting all over my house ...my mouser died ,I got a new mouser in fact one indoors and 3 outdoors . We still have tons .I empty out my dogs water dish...with dead floating mice .that dish has caught so many mice .. Umm last week one was drowned in the toilet,also same morning I was taking cloths out of washer and yep oh my God one was in there with the Clean cloths ...I wonder how he liked the spin cycle .!!! Anyway When I see one alive .I freaking run for a chair !!! No Lie they so give me the willies !! I so almost throw up too !!! They are so so dirty .. Wendy not to burst your bubble but where theres ONE theres MORE !!! keep setting those traps ... Oh we also live in a New Subdivision ,and it was old HAY fields .I'm like way out in the country here..You wont like them after you see thier tonge prints in your butter ,and thier footprints on your microwrave . I'm just dreading the cool weather cuz in my house they come !!! I'm armed with A Cat Named DASH And 3 out doors, ummm named ..DECON .... TOM ..And TERMINATOR !!!!.LOL }( }( }( }( :p :p KIll Kill Kill I say they Multiply SOOOOOOOO fast !!!
 
Wendy, I am like that about animals too--even insects (except roaches or ants) and lizards, etc. My husband and boys were fishing in the backyard the other day, and decided to put a fish in a bucket of water from the hose--the fish died instantly. I could of killed them. You did the right thing with the mouse, you couldn't of caught him by hand.

Lori
 
Speaking of cats playing with the mice and leaving for dead sounded just like the cat I had five years ago.We actually saw him running around playing with one while we were watching tv. It have me the chills! Then in the morning I would see the thing in the hall with no hair on it skint to the bone! That was nasty!


Boy, I am about to puke!!


kim
 
No, you're not strange. You're just empathetic.
Think of it this way: if you used a snap trap, it's a quick death. Not a "let's torture the critter to death" death like with a glue trap.

When I moved into my house, I quicky found evidence of mouse inhabitation, including an unsnapped trap way back in a cupboard (which I'm glad I reached into with a tool of some kind, and not my bare hands!) and my cats' extreme interest in a certain part of the basement wall. Since I knew where the mice has probably come from (when I had a house inspection done, we found a hole the size of a 50-cent piece in the basement wall that we had the owners close up), I was pretty sure that if I got the mice out, I wouldn't see them again. I got some live traps, and set them up. Then I released the mice in an area far away from me that I thought they could live well in without bothering people (and vice versa). They were really cute! One hopped away, like some kind of little kangaroo mouse.

I've never had mice problems since.
 
When we owned on auto shop we had mice all over, the love axle grease, we tried the humane traps, but these mice would go crazy in these traps and actually kill one another, so we finally got the snap traps and let them have a quick death rather then killing each other. We had a big dobby, who thought they were play toys. His favorite game was grab a basketball and toss it in the air and catch it. The little mice were a little too light for him, and they'd go flying all over the place. Then a cat moved into our back room and had babies, and the mice problem completely went away. But I seriously don't like mice anymore, I'll try to trap them humanely if possible, but being from Az and some what near the 4 corners area, where people were dying from the toxins in the mouse droppings, has made me very skittish about mice. Granted that was 5 years ago and it made national news but scientists still don't exactly know what those mice ate to affect a human so badly.

Kit
 
Been there! (Raising hand really high in the air!) We had a mouse in our cabin on vacation for several years. I complained on the second year, I think, and the guys said "OK, I will put some DECON up there & get rid of him for you." Right away I felt bad and said "well, do you have to kill him?" BF turned to me and said "Hey, Christine, either he gets the decon or he stays as our guest for another year!" Well, the got him but his son came back the next year to hang out with us! I woke up one morning and he was int he middle of the cabin just sitting there scared to death. That year it was just the girls (my friend and BF's daughter and I) b/c BF was deployed for the war and we screamed like you wouldn't believe! :) He was smaller than a golf ball....I never complained about him b/c I didn't want him to "get the Decon!" ...we were lucky enough to get a new cabin this year!
 
I hate it when my cat brings in a mouse. If its alive, I catch it and put it outside. (Although whether they can recover from the trauma of being played with by a cat, I don't know.) Personally, I would rather catch a mouse alive and put it outside - I don't think its necessary to kill it.

ETA: I found the tone of this thread quite upsetting.
 
No, your not strange. I will even dodge black snakes in the road, but if I see any other kind, I will run over it...that is one of the exceptions. I don't like to kill anything either. I would rather grab something by its wings and put it outside instead of killing it except for flies. Gnats like to commit suicide by getting into my eyes alot! I am not one to watch gory or violet movies either. I will just leave if I see someone's head getting popped off, etc.

Charlotte~~
 
I wish my dh would have set the trap to catch it alive but he said they are expensive and where would we let it go? We don't live in a wooded area. There is really no GOOD place to let it go so we had to buy the "snappers". UGH. x(
 
Wendy, I don't think you're strange. It does feel mean to kill critters; I mean, it's not their fault that we don't want them in the house, lol.

I have three cats and therefore never have this problem. The problem I DO have, though, is there are a bunch of strays that wander our neighborhood, and they bring all kinds of gifts to my female cat (who was fixed but still just wants to wander with strange males, lol). We are constantly finding dead mice outside the basement windows! Yuck!

Marie
 
>I wish my dh would have set the trap to catch it alive but he
>said they are expensive and where would we let it go?

I don't know if you consider $10 expensive, but that's what mine cost (a green plastic thing, with a slot to put a peanut-butter coverd cracker in for bait. They eat through the cracker to get out after you lift a trap door). I don't remember where I got it, but I've seen them at www.peta.com .

There are other live traps called "havaheart"(or "havahart"?), for all different sizes of critters, but they are made by a company that makes steel jaw leg-hold traps (very cruel), and I don't want my money to go to them.

Is there a train near where you live? SOmetimes the area around train tracks is "field-like" enough for mice.
 
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