A Serious Mouse Problem

Whenever you decide to do something in life, there will be undoubtedly follow a few nay-sayers who manage to find something negative to say about your decision. For example, when I decided to seriously consider going to Washington College, I knew I wanted to go there because it had a good English program, was a small school, and was fairly close to home. I was very excited about it. The first question I received from the very first person I told outside of my immediate family was; "Isn't that the college where they have naked day?!?" Yeah...way to burst my bubble. (to answer the question: yes, technically, unofficially, some of the students on campus celebrate a version of naked day. That is not the reason I went to WaC. Nor was it a good enough reason NOT to go).

Anyway...back to the story at hand.

When we moved in to our farm house, the bubble burst-er was "You're going to get rats." Yeah, that made us feel good about our decision.

Well, we don't have rats (that we know of). But we do have mice - and a lot of them! It got cold, all the corn was harvested, and suddenly all the mice were relocating into our house. This is what we have learned.

• You know you have mice when you start seeing little mouse droppings on the counter
• You know you have a lot of mice when you can hear them running through the ceiling and the walls when you go to sleep.
• You know the mice have gotten comfortable with you when they run through your living room while you are sitting there quietly typing at your computer.
• You know your dog has gotten too used to the mice when she will nap through one running across her bed.
  
• You know that you have really uppity mice when they will crawl up on the arm of your sofa, while you and six of your friends are sitting in your sofas, talking loudly

• But, you know you have serious mouse problem when the mice start eating through your ceiling:

(yes, our walls are wood paneling and our ceilings are also wood paneling. There must have been a sweet sale on wood paneling when they built the house)

So, yes. The rumors were true. We have 3 holes in our ceiling. We have a serious mouse problem.