Taking Kitty Out for a Test Drive...

I hate mice.
I have mice.
I have mice that will not go into the traps like they are supposed to. And yes, I have tried 5 different types of traps, and yes I use peanut butter, and yes I load the traps with plastic gloves on, and yes I have stuffed holes with steel wool, and yes I keep the dog food in a big plastic bin. And STILL I have holes chewed in my boxes of cereal, in my bread, in my rice, in my potato chips.

I talked to the exterminator who explained that in my 110 year old house the mice have been there for about that long. That these are the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great (You get the point) grandmice of the original invaders. And he suggested a generous dosing of poison and trap combo. Well, I'm not going to use poison in a house with children (nor do I want stinky dead mice in my walls), and the traps are either not working or in the case of the sticky traps, they are catching more family members (of the Oliver and Fargo kind) than mice.

I am not a cat person. I am a dog person. A BIG dog person. I have never owned a cat in my life. I might even be allergic. But, it has gotten to the point that my pet hating husband and I have begun to talk seriously about getting a cat. First, we talked about getting a snake and letting it loose, but decided that wasn't feasible. Since, I don't know if we are a cat kind of family or not, and since I don't believe in getting pets unless you are committed to the animal for life, I called my friend Meg who fosters cats and asked her what I should do. She said, foster a cat. If it's not something we want to do, we give it back to the rescue people or to its "forever home."

So, I called Karen, my rescue contact, and she will be looking for something that would suit our needs and family. We should hear back in the next couple of days.