Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Mouse Trap

This morning at 4:45 AM I heard some rustling around and my first thought was "Sammy's up." I lay there half awake trying to figure out where he was and what he was doing. Then my closet light (which is a motion activated light) turned on. I thought, "Why is Sammy in my closet?" But then I realized that it wasn't Sammy in my closet. Both the boys were fast asleep in their beds.

Oh. My. Gosh. There is something moving around in my closet! What am I going to do?

Don't freak out. Don't freak out.

I had seen some mouse traps around our garage, and the previous tenants mentioned that they once had (past tense) a problem with mice. So I figured it was a mouse.

At this point I gathered all the blankets and sheets to the center of the bed. I didn't want anything to be touching the floor per chance that little rodent decided he wanted to jump in bed with me.

I grabbed my cell phone and called Andy, who was 2,000 miles away. What in the world did I think he'd be able to do?

Surprised to be getting my call so early in the morning (it was 6:45 for him) Andy answered saying, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Andy! There is something moving around in our closet!"

Phone disconnected. Call back.

"Stacie, call me from the house phone."

"Are you crazy?! I am not getting out of this bed!"

Phone disconnected. Begin texting.

Andy texts things like, "How big does it sound? Is it still moving around? Be bold and courageous. When life hands you rats, make rat soup!"

I text things like, "I'm freaking out. We need to call an exterminator. I do NOT do rodents!"

Of course there was nothing Andy could do for me, so I did the only logical thing I could think of. I called my dad...who was 3,000 miles away! He didn't answer. Sigh.

I attempted to go back to sleep (with the lights on, mind you!) but every time I would hear a rustling my eyes would pop wide open. I was hearing all kinds of noises and I was just certain that that little mouse was doing victory laps around my closet because he knew he had totally terrified a creature 100 times his size. They can sense fear, you know...

It got quiet for a minute. The motion light went off. But 30 seconds later it was back on again. I figured he went and got all his little mice friends to come play ring around the rosies, make nests in my shoes, and poop on my floor. I heard squeaking and I'm almost positive that I heard laughter at one point. Taunting me.

As I was laying there paralyzed in fear, I was trying to talk some sense into myself. I reminded myself that I love riding horses, which are about 100 times my size, and it would not scare me to have a Rottweiller lick my face. I used to have a pet gerbil as a kid, which is really just a glorified mouse, and I would play with it and let it run all over me. But I was not feeling the animal love at 5 AM this morning.

When I finally worked up the courage to go get in the shower (at 6:15) I noticed on my neighbors roof those exhaust vents that look kinda like a mushroom and spin around. Wouldn't you know, they squeak! Just like the squeaking I had been listening to for the last hour and a half through my open windows. And, although I'm 95% certain there was indeed something (a mouse, a ghost, an evil villain, etc.) moving around in my closet this morning, I will concede that it's possible that the wind was blowing and making things in my closet move thus triggering the light.

All that emotional hyperactivity for nothing! I'm really glad I didn't send that email to my landlord that I was working on at 5:15 from the confines of my bed! Why does everything seem more dramatic in the middle of the night?

1 comment:

Sanders said...

Bahahahaha! I have had so many similar things happen to me! Gosh I love you Stacie!! BE BOLD & COURAGEOUS! This gave me a really nice laugh - I read the whole thing out to Todd!! His favorite part was Andy's texts. :O)

Love you!