Halloween Scare

     I had my scream for Halloween a day early.  Yesterday I went over to the cabin to check out the trap line for the mice.  What I found when I got there had to be a Halloween Trick.

      I looked at the sticky trap in the bedroom and was disappointed when it was completely empty.  I approached the trap by the fireplace cautiously because it was flipped over; I thought for sure there would be a mouse but I thought wrong.  I looked underneath the kitchen sink and found that trap had gone off but I had it sitting too close to a pipe and when it went off the only thing the bar caught was the pipe.  The wooden mouse trap by the patio door had gone off, the peanut butter was gone and there was no mouse to be found.  I shook my head in disbelief as I walked up the stairs to the loft. 

     I couldn’t believe I hadn’t caught one single mouse and only had one trap left to check.  When I looked up I saw what I thought to be the biggest mouse with big beady eyes staring at me from the top of the steps.  I screamed a blood curdling scream that could be heard throughout the Boundary Waters and everywhere along the Gunflint Trail.  I couldn’t quit screaming until my eyes and mind finally clicked together and determined it wasn’t a mouse but a red squirrel.  Goodness Gracious, what next? 

     How the red squirrel got into the cabin is beyond me.  I usually see it sitting outside of the patio doors on the deck looking in at me when I am cleaning.  I guess he wanted to see what it looked like inside and found a way in. 

     After I calmed down I checked the final trap.  No mouse.  I think the mice and red squirrel are playing some early Halloween tricks on me.  I can’t understand how they could eat the peanut butter, set off the trap and not get caught, it just doesn’t make sense.

     Many of my blog readers have written to try and help me in my pursuit of mice.  I’ve learned that mice don’t like fabric sheets or peppermint oil so if you place these items where the mice come in then they won’t come in.  I’ve also been given step by step instructions on how to set the trap without losing a finger and have been told what traps work the best. 

     I put more peanut butter back on the traps and put all of the traps back into their strategic locations.  This time I set the sticky trap right next to the peanut butter on the trap thinking maybe the mouse will stand on the sticky trap to get the peanut butter off of it.  We’ll see if my logic works or not.  I’m hoping the squirrel found a way out so I don’t have another scare, but if I do, then it will at least be on Halloween.

Happy Halloween Everyone!