Mouse In Pantry!

OK, so the other day I found a little mouse in our pantry.  Do I sound real calm?  The fact is, I was really shocked when I actually saw a mouse in my pantry! That was last week.

It was 4pm, and boys had swimming lessons at 4.30pm and I found the mouse in the pantry.  The timing could not be better! I was getting some snacks in the pantry for the boys as they were hungry (as usual before lesson!) when I saw something “grey” flashed across my eyes — I did have a very vague thought that it could be a mouse but I told myself :”it can’t be”.  Then in between 2 baskets, I saw a little mouse sitting there looking at me!  I wanted to scream, but I was worried that the little thing would jumped out and ran wild in the house.  The boys were around me then too.  It took me a while to admit there was a real mouse in the pantry.  I quietly told the boys there was a mouse and all they said was “where? where? Let me see! Let me see!”.  I ignored their request. I tried my best to remain calm, shut the pantry door and yell for help.

The husband, when I told him about the mouse, thought I was joking!  Unbelievable.  Anyway, he came and began to remove things from the pantry one item at a time.  He did not want to scare the mouse/for the mouse to escape. Thankfully, the little thing was still in the pantry, same section where I found it, but in a corner.  The husband took a container and somehow managed to catch it before it had a chance to escape.  Thank God!

The boys were excited of course to see a mouse in the house and that their dad was such a “hero” to catch the mouse.:)   They even wanted to keep it as a pet!  Robin then explained to them that the mouse could bring a lot of disease and so it was a no keeper.  They wanted to know what their dad would do to the mouse …. well, the husband had to get rid of it, unfortunately (cute as it looked).  The boys went to swimming lessons on time (phew!) and they even had time to relate (excitedly) the mouse story to our neighbour next door who had just arrived home.

When I returned home, the husband had removed EVERYTHING from the pantry.  EVERYTHING, I kid you not.  I do have to admit that my pantry was very very untidy and in need desperately for a clean out.  So it was a “good” chance.  We were worried that the mouse had been in the pantry for more than a day or if there were any other mouse because it was common knowledge that there’s usually a few others if we found one!  I was terrified at the thought.  In the end, we did not find any other mouse.  I hope there’s no more.

The husband and I spent the whole night disinfecting the pantry and all the items as well as throwing out expired food stuff (there were several of them!).  He even mopped the floor.  We were so tired, but I guess it was important that we keep the things, especially food items and the house clean for the boys.

Next step: set up some mouse traps around the house in case there are others.  Also, to ALWAYS keep the sliding door to the backyard shut at all times as a mouse can wriggle its way in no matter how small the gap is.  The boys, including the husband have this habit of keeping the sliding door ajar when they go to the backyard.

Btw, last night, the husband and I were still talking about the mouse incident.  He even “googled” to find the differences between rat and mouse to convince himself it was a mouse we found. And, the “greatest” discovery for me was that he still thought I was joking with him when I told him there was a mouse in the pantry — he actually thought I found a great big spider or cockroach somewhere and made it up to be a mouse! Methinks he was in denial like me when I first found the mouse! 🙂

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