Saturday, April 20, 2013

There's a Mouse in the House :(

Its seems we have had a visitor.  Katie had been interested in the drawers a bit ago, but that never panned out. I put out the traps, and nothing was ever caught.  Then last night - gang busters!!  It sounded like large rats on the roof - or above the ceiling, I wasn't sure which - but the scurrying footsteps sure were loud.  

Then suddenly there was the same noise coming from inside the refrigerator wall by the entrance steps.  Up and down - loud, up and down - really loud!  I went over and banged on the wall a bunch of times.  The noise stopped.  Then started again, so I banged again.  Then the noise came from the stove side of the refrigerator wall.  I banged on that wall.  The noise stopped.  

Then I heard little noises and put my ear to the wall.  Frantic scratching sounds.  BANG!  Quiet.  Frantic scratching noises.   BANG BANG BANG!  Quiet.

I don't know if they got out, but it sounded like they were trying very hard to get out. There weren't any more noises for the rest of the night.

This morning when I raised my shades, there was a furry critter scurrying around right outside the rig in the dried cactus - I grabbed the camera and got one good shot of our visitor.  At least I think it was probably the critter:
I think this is the mouse - and I think he's gone.
I went all over the rig, looking for nests and openings outside the motor home, everywhere but underneath the motor home.  I didn't see anything suspicious.  One of these days I'll crawl under with my steel wool and stuff it into any holes I find underneath.  In the meantime, I think I'll crawl up on the top of The Palms tomorrow in the morning when it's calm and look for any tiny openings that might have been the entry spot last night. 

Site O has been open for a few days, and I packed up and drove back to that campsite - hoping the rodent stays up in Site 3 and won't come down the road.  Luckily the hummingbirds seem to have followed me - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the mouse didn't.

Late this afternoon Hazel reminded me about putting peppermint extract on cotton balls and I remembered I had both items from a previous mouse scare.  I got them out, poured the extract on some cotton balls and started opening up drawers and threw them behind all the places I could find.  I opened up my "pot drawer" and this is what I found:

Mouse nest in drawer under the oven.
I had previously checked under the kitchen sink and behind the drawers, but not the drawer under the oven.  And that's obviously where he was.  

I carefully cleaned everything in the drawer, threw out all the napkins, and pulled out the drawer.  There was another chewed up napkin behind the drawer, and I cleaned up that area, too.  There was also a bunch of pieces of that grey "blown in" hole filler material around one of the pipes coming in from under the floor, so I think that's how it got in. I stuffed steel wool pieces into all the places I could find that might have been entry points.

Hopefully all will be quiet tonight.

Last night when the mouse was making noises, Katie kept barking.   I was trying to hear where it was, and yelled at her - sternly - more than once.  She went on the couch and just sat there.  Later I put a blanket over her so she would lay down.  And she just sat there.  Such a sad baby.
I was yelled at.  :(
We all had horrible winds and dust storms again a couple of days ago.  It started out as a beautiful, calm, clear morning, then the winds began.  Once the wind started and the thick dust was in the air you just stayed inside.  They closed the highways down for four hours.  When taking Katie out for a potty break, I wore a dust mask, but worried about all the dust Katie was breathing in.  She refused to go potty until the next morning.  The wind/dust kept up until around 9 pm. 
On a clear day I can see miles and miles to the far mountains.  This day I could hardly see beyond my campsite.
The next morning it was calm and clear and this rising moon was in the sky around mid-morning.  So clear and pretty.


I had planned on going out to dinner at a local Brew Pub in Deming with  friends Jim and Gayle, and Debbie, and also Jim M., whom I had just met.  The wind was so bad, we rescheduled to the next night.  The dinner was good and the company was great. Thanks for inviting me along!

Then the next day Hazel drove over from City of Rocks to have lunch with me.  We had a nice visit while eating our sandwiches and fruit salad.  Her greyhounds are so well behaved.  The weather was nice and we were able to eat outside with the dogs all sitting nearby.

The other day while walking Katie, we ran into our friends Gayle/Jim/Debbie/Jim M and stopped to chat for a while.  Jim M. recently adopted a new dog, Chica, and Debbie recently adopted another dog, Rupert.  Katie and Elliott, Debbie's other dog, had so much fun running around and playing chase when we were all in Colorado, and Katie seemed fine with the two newbies, too.

Elliott, Chica and Katie
Chica and Katie
Elliott says, "Hey, I want to sniff Katie, too!"
Our 14 days are up soon, so we'll be leaving Wednesday morning, if not before.  I really like this park, and have had some interesting times here.  This is a park I'll definitely visit again.  Now, if we can only keep the winds, dust storms, and mice away until we leave, that would be just fine with me!

Welcome to our newest Follower, Jim!  Jim's blog is Jimbo's Journey, check it out.   I just met Jim M. through my friends Gayle and Jim, and Debbie, all Lazy Daze owners, and Jim also has a Lazy Daze motor home.  He recently found a tiny Chihuahua who he named Chica, and she is pictured above.  She's a darling little girl.  It was nice meeting you, Jim, and joining you all for dinner.  I've added your blog to my blog roll, so I can keep up with your adventures. Thanks for following along with me and Katie!   

From Me and My Dog, have a good Saturday night, everyone!  :)

18 comments:

  1. We have had mouse problems too. They have now been relocated, thanks to some peanut butter. When mice can squeeze through 1/4", it is hard to get every spot, but we try, don't we.

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  2. We had a mouse or SOME CRITTER in our house 2 nights ago. It was up in the crawl space, by the air conditioner tubing. I banged on the walls, banged some more, finally went to bed. I could hear IT clanging around, then down the pipes in the bathroom and then...CLUNK...out it went. All was quiet last night. We have pretty much mouse-proofed the outside of the house, but it might have got in through the cable holes. Now that we don't have Daisy, our female hunter-killer cat (she died in February), the CRITTERS are coming back. It doesn't help that our neighbor has grapefruit lying ALL OVER her front and back yards! Argh! I don't like glue traps as I only catch birds and geckos, so I haven't done anything yet...

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  3. I hate when I get a mouse in the house. Hope you left it behind.

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  4. I agree....a mouse in the house is not good! Someone suggested dryer wipes. We have them stuffed everywhere!

    Enjoy your blast few days there...your site is so pretty!

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  5. That should have been enjoy your last few days, but you can have a blast too!

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  6. See, yet another reason to live in a mobile cottage. When you get a mouse, just leave it behind!! My house is in the country so battling mice seem to be a part of life. I would think that they would not like to hang out with us as I have 3 mouse terrorists, (read kitties) but they seem to think they can outsmart the furkids. I certainly like the idea of just moving to get rid of these bad little neighbors.

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  7. So far we have not had any critters in our house (knock on wood!). Hopefully yours decided not to stick around :)

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  8. I like mice. They are kind of cute, but not in my living area. One year we had a mouse in the motor-home even though we had everything in tight containers and no vegetables stored in the storage rooms. We used the old fashioned traps and caught her with dry bread crust. After that I used bay leaves in the drawers. So far we had new visitors.
    See Katie met Chica. I didn't know she was that small. But she looks like an alpha female with her body language. Small dog - big ego. :))

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  9. Awww, poor little Katie. She says, "but mom, I was trying to help. It's my job to alert on intruders!"

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  10. That mouse nest looked scary! I would be afraid to touch it, but I guess you have to get rid of it some way. So glad you got to meet with the Lazy Daze troupe!! I just love that little Chica. She makes Katie look like a big girl LOL! Hope Katie got extra hugs - she looks so sad sitting there under her blankie:))

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  11. I have had good luck with Irish Spring cut into 1 inch pieces and flung hither and yon in the basement areas and Bounce dryer sheets are reported to be good too, have those tucked in all over the place upstairs. Coach Masters in Bend told me about both things, told me to tie the soap to the carburetor when leaving it sitting for periods of time as mice like to build nests in there too!!!. that nest just looked nasty!!!

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  12. Oh noooooo! We've had mice too! Finally got rid of them after a week of peppermint therapy and plugging up all the holes in the RV. Sure hope yours is left behind!
    Nina

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  13. Aw, Katie.

    Can you get Valley Fever over there?

    When did you change your blog name? Please say "yesterday" or "last week" to make me feel better.

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  14. Chica is looking at Katie, like "do you think we are related, we are the same color?" So cute! We are having all kind of mice problems too, in the vehicles and the rv. Too many mice not enough traps.....

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  15. I too had a great time with such wonderful company at the Deming Brewery the other night. Chica sure enjoyed meeting Katie. It is always nice to put a face with a blog. I will be following all your adventures.

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  16. Barbara, I not only HATE them - I have a really, really bad phobia re 'them'. So much so that I cannot even say the "M" word - so I call 'it' Henry !! LOL

    I JUST went through having one in the rig. Under the kitchen sink. Fortunately I was parked at a friends place and I slept in their house until I was sure Henry was gone !!

    I also went through the rig to try and determine how IT got in. Plugging every opening no matter how small it is.

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  18. I have been using copper wool. Supposedly rodents do not like the taste of copper. I have yet, in 17 years, to have a rodent so perhaps it does work. :)

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