Thursday 18 August 2016

#162 Long tails and loud wails

I'd always thought that mice were those funsized things that scurried about, picking up crumbs, whereas rats were much larger, ghastly creatures that bit people and spread the plague. It turns out, at least technically, that the line is much more blurred. In fact I'm not even sure there is one. According to Wikipedia, there's no scientific distinction between the two.

I am happy to let the scientists use my distinction, while they figure out their own. The cute little fellow that I saw poking his whiskers out of the gap beside the kitchen plug sockets this week looked awfully mousey to me.

Upon first discovering the creature earlier in the week, my housemate's rather frolicsome male friend immediately dropped any ounce of composure that he possessed and let out a shriek of a nature such that my first thought was that he had spotted a burglar. Having little in the house of much material value, I scarcely looked up from my book.

He had been at the flour, the mouse, not my flatmate's friend and had trodden a white path around the worktop and up onto the corner of the microwave. There was no food up there and I can't imagine what fascination a rodent should have with radiative cooking. Perhaps he was simply exploring.

We're taking steps to keep them out. Taping over holes. Sealing up the food, that sort of thing, so I'm not sure when I'll see the mouse next. Still, it was nice to have a friend in the house for a while.

1 comment

Running on empty said...

They like to chew on electric wires in the walls, and cords, which is a house fire in the making.

In Sydney there is a cockroach problem everywhere because of the subtropical climate and it being an international seaport. I used cockroach baits and two electrical plug in sonic deterrents, that were supposed to send all scurrying things packing. Thus I had no cockroach problem there, or mice.

We lived at one time in a new townhouse in a development of around 12. It was near a field (as yet undeveloped block of land. ) One day I saw a mouse in the loungeroom. As I had a young child I contacted the landlord, and told them they had two choices, pay for extermination, or allow us to get a cat, and the matter was urgent. We were allowed to get a cat, she looked at me through the pet shop window, she was grey, with green eyes, just beautiful. We called her Emma. We still have her 13 years later.