Creepy Little Eyeballs

Yesterday as I was putting the boxes of cereal we used back in the cupboard, I thought I saw something... move?  I stepped back a little to see better (this particular cupboard is a high one), and there were a pair of little, shiny black eyes looking back at me.  This particular set of eyes were attached to a furry little mouse body.  I wanted to shriek as the mouse and I stared at each other for several seconds, but I thought better of it and closed the cupboard door.

Great.  There's a bold little mouse in the cereal cupboard.  He's probably been eating the cereal I just fed my kids (and myself) for breakfast.

I thought I was going to be sick.

Instead I called Ryan at work.  I was more freaked out than I thought I was, since a women answered the call.  Apparently I dialed the wrong number.

Ryan promised to bring home traps and poison for our little problem when he came home from work.  For the rest of the day, I tippy-toed my way around the kitchen.  I chastised myself for doing so, knowing that mouse has likely been living in our house for who knows how long.  Judging by the amount of droppings, he's been enjoying our cereal for a while.  (How did I miss all the droppings??  I know the cupboard is above my line of sight, but good grief!)

When Ryan did arrive home, he brought the promised bag of rodent solutions.  He picked up two different kinds of traps, and poison to boot.  His former-student-turned-Ace-employee laughed at him for being so thorough.  Ryan told him to just wait until he had a wife.  My piece of mind is worth $20.

As we were lying in bed last night, Ryan said he would check on the traps before he left in the morning.  I told him I was a "big girl" and could probably handle it.

I changed my tune when it was time for breakfast.  The cereal cupboard looked like a gory scene from CSI. The mouse had eaten some of the poison (which Ryan told me caused ulcers and was an anti-coagulant) and then was snapped by the mouse trap.  It was just a lot to handle before breakfast.  I texted Ryan to say, "I changed my mind about being a big girl."  But I grabbed a plastic grocery sack, covered my hand, and picked up the mess and the trap.  There was no way I was going to disentangle.... everything.

We've left the poison and the other traps available.  Just in case our little mouse had friends.