I had to help Laura look for a new house this week. Not for us though--thankfully. We have moved house enough! Nope. I have my bed in a nice safe corner here, and I can keep an eye on Laura when she is working, and I only have to go right outside our back door to play in my nice, big yard. I like this house that we have already just fine. But we don't want it to get too crowded. There are already three humans living here and one Princess, and that is enough. So when a little mouse tried to move in with us earlier this week we said, "Sorry. That is not going to happen."
Lots of mice are attracted to our house, especially in the winter time, because it is warm and we have peanut butter cookies. Laura says it is good to share the peanut butter with them, because we have lots of food, but she doesn't think we should share our beds. So she puts some peanut butter in a little box and puts the box under the sink, and then all the mice that come to visit us go in there.
At first I thought the little box would be the new home for our house mice. The mice are very small, and the box has peanut butter in it, and a big sky light. I like to watch the mice play through their sky light. They are cute and they smell interesting.
Laura said watching the mice made them nervous, however, and we needed the box back to put fresh peanut butter in it for the next mice who come to visit us. So Laura and I take the mice into the yard to help them find a new home.
I thought the wood pile on the back wall of the house might be a good spot. It is warm in there, and it has lots of fun places in which a little mouse could play hide and seek. Plus, I go by that wood pile every day, so I could keep an eye out for those mice. (Not to scare them. Just to make sure that they are okay.)
Laura wasn't convinced though. She said that once mice find out you have peanut butter they can get lazy. She said if we left the mice in the wood pile by the house they might not bother to build a nest there; they'd just sneak back into our house and make another play for ours!
That seemed pretty cheeky to me, but I guess mice can be cheeky. Laura would know better than me as she has more experience with them. She had a bunch of mice try to share her office with her one time. They would camp out under her desk while she was sitting at it, and when she left the room, they sometimes climbed on top of her desk, danced on her keyboard, and left little love notes for her on her computer.
Those mice made a nest for themselves inside one of the computers. The computer didn't like that very much so it went on strike. And its manufacturer said, "Sorry. Damage caused by rodent piss on the motherboard is not covered in the warranty."
So, anyway... no mouse hotel in the big wood pile. Instead, we took that little mouse down to the brush pile by the shed. I cannot see inside the brush pile very well in the winter because it is covered in snow, but Laura said it should make a fine home for our little visitors and hopefully it would be easier for them to build a nest in the brush pile than find their way all the way back to our peanut butter. Me, I'm not so sure. Our peanut butter is very yummy, and--I love Laura, but let's face it: she doesn't have a very good track record with convincing small animals to stay away from her. But--so long as I don't have to move house again or give up my bed--I'm willing to try Laura's plan for now.
