The Average Adventures of Amie Lou: Adventures in Mouse-Hunting

Yesterday I asked Josh to take me out on a date that night since I had work off and didn't have to be in to work til later today. However, it didn't turn out quite like I was hoping for. This past week Josh not only had three mice-spottings in his kitchen (including seeing one on the counter), but he also caught four. So, yesterday afternoon I came over with a friend and we planned a few hours pulling out the fridge and oven and catching however many mice were left and cleaning up after their nasty-ness. Seven hours later we finally finished. Cleaning mouse poo and mouse nests out of the bottom of the oven was not quite the romantic night I had envisioned...

The fridge was the first to be pulled out. There was mouse poo and some holes in the wall, but overall, not too bad. Josh patched up the holes and we cleaned that up pretty fast. Once we pulled out the oven though, we quickly realized that this project was not going to be done anytime soon.

Behind the oven was incredibly disgusting amounts of mouse droppings, dead insects, and mold. Gross. That was Josh's project. My job was to pull the drawer out of the bottom of the oven and search inside. I cannot even express how horrified I was to find a few nests in the spaces on either side of the drawer and more mouse poo than I ever thought possible. That was my project to clean. Not even the thickest hazmat suit could have made me feel comfortable enough to clean that up. And all I had were gloves, two plastic forks, a vacuum, and Clorox wipes. I had to shimmy under the oven and reach back with the forks to get the nests and carefully get them to the trash can without dropping mouse poo all over the kitchen floor. I was whining, making disgusted noises, and almost crying, and what was Josh doing? Laughing at me. That was one of the most disgusting things I've done, and he thought it was one of the funniest things he's seen. As you can tell, it was quite the romantic night.

After a trip to Lowe's for mouse traps, caulk, tools, and laminate floor tiles; five hours of patching holes and cleaning under (and inside) appliances; and two hours of cleaning floors, counters, and dishes; we were finally done. I don't think that kitchen has ever been that clean since it was built. But there's still more to do, and Josh will have his landlord do the rest.

But after all was said and done and we were resting on the couch, we heard scratching and scurrying. But no mice were to be found anywhere. My theory? Since all the holes were covered and caulked, there's mice who are now stuck inside the wall. Take that you nasty buggars! At least (hopefully) they can't get back in his kitchen... So here's to hoping!