Cats got my tongue as mice hit home

The pep talks just didn't seem to take. The great mouse saga still hasn't ended. It started as the cooler weather set in, with odd noises and scampering sounds apparently in the walls, like "something" moving around.

As we don't live in the twilight zone, we discounted ghostly visitations and looked at more earthly visitors. The sounds were too big for insects, unless we had a hive as big as the house, so that left mammals, or more accurately rodents.

Within days of losing a full bag of chocolates to a nocturnal visitor (The Standard, November 23, 2021), Amber the once feral cat exuberantly chased a tiny field mouse down the stairs and lost it in the kitchen.

A few days later, stately Jade sashayed across the floor with what appeared to be a piece of string hanging from her mouth.

Asked what she was doing, Jade turned, dropped the "string" and watched a tiny field mouse streak away from her.

Repeated strategy talks with both cats had no effect. They were happy to sit and stare at sections of the wall, or toward windows or doors, but either the wily rodents had learned to recognize when the cats were around or the cats had simply lost interest in chasing mice.

So on to plan two, with the strategic placing of "catch and release" traps. The nifty little traps came with their own bait, which apparently held no interest for our unwanted house guests, as after a week there was no sign of any triggered traps.

Remembering the missing chocolate, we baited each of the four traps with tasty chocolate. A week later, chocolate gone from one trap, but no mouse in the trap. Jade however, was seen prowling near the trap licking her whiskers clean.

Finally we set the trap under the kitchen sink, baited with dry cat food.

At the end of that first day, no less than four tiny mice had been carted outside and released in the long grass at the edge of a field. After a week, seven mice were evicted into the fields in which they belong.

The house has been silent for the last week, no scampering feet, no gnawing sounds from behind the walls, no holes in the cat food box, so maybe we have solved our problem, but just in case, we have left down the "catch and release" traps so we can stop the next invasion before it gets a foothold.

Georgina Noyce is an equestrian judge, and has a menagerie of adopted four-legged waifs and strays.

gnoyce2009@gmail.com