May 13, 2009

Intruders Entered While We Slept

They enter your home while you sleep at night. Sneaking around your home searching for any valuables that may have fallen to the floor or behind the trash can. Perhaps to steal from the dogs bowl.


You don't even realize they are in your home. So far, they have been undetected. Leaving no sign that they have been there. Then out of the corner of your eye you see it! You jump back and catch your breath at the site of your uninvited guest. There it goes! . . running along the edge of your wall trying to escape your site.


As a knee-jerk reaction you call your canine companion. When they arrive at your side you point to the trespasser and whisper "Go get 'em. Kill it." Your friend spots them and attacks. Clawing wildly at the floor. Sniffing the area frantically in their best attempt to capture the scent of their long-tailed prey. They pounce the floor over and over again. An hour passes and the enemy has escaped with plans to return again in the dark of the night. You praise your loyal friend for diligent efforts.


Immediately you make plans to set peanut butter traps to catch the intruder. You leave feeling confident that when you return you will have been triumphant. Alas, you check your traps and they have all been cleaned out-not one lick of the peanut butter yummy-ness remains. All that is there is your trap. Set and empty.


Frustration begins to set in. You go to the store and purchase several varieties of traps. These traps produce the same outcome. A week has passed and still nothing. Now you can hear scratching from inside your walls. You are sure your peanut butter has led to an increase of break-ins by your long-tailed intruder and it's friends.


You are now constantly checking your home everyday to make sure there are no crumbs. Vacuuming, sweeping, mopping and bleaching anything and everything you can. Your home was clean to start with-why did they ever come here anyway?


You must keep reminding yourself that you live in the forest. Remind yourself that this happens every year at about the same time. Remind yourself that in 2 weeks this will all be over - until next year.


Just when you feel as though you have reached the height of your frustration, that you couldn't feel any more disgusted, a gift from the heavens presents itself in the form of a simple black box that originated in the fabulous USA.

You set it and an hour later your hear a snap coming from that very location. Success! Take that you little . . . rodent! And then a small feeling of guilt seeps in. Oh, it was so tiny-and kind of cute really. Okay, the guilt has passed as you empty the unwanted visitor into the dumpster outside.

One after another you catch them. They didn't stand a chance against the black box. The kids start to cheer out in excitement when they hear the traps thunderous SNAP! Once more you can relax. A few weeks have passed and the trap no longer snaps. You no longer feel a need to bleach your cabinet floors and dark corners.


Everything is peaceful again. Until next year . . .

3 comments from people we love:

Ashley Knudson said...

I have witnessed this snap and it is scary!

MoM K said...

We used a mouse trap once and it worked but it was horrible to see the little mouse...blood oozing...lifeless...so sad. I couldn't even take it to the trash. Don had to do it!. BUT if we had been able get the bad mouse who impregnated the pet ,pise belonging to Christine, we would have done it happily!!!

Meredith said...

Ugh! And I thought ants and squirrels were bad....