We've lived in our house for 10 years and never seen a mouse until tonight. I remembered reading this thread and thinking "Over 20 traps -- has Karen lost her mind???". Well, now that I have one of those little buggers in my house I'm thinking 20 traps is not nearly enough, and I'm merely thinking for prevention of any mice that might be left. We came home tonight to find my two cats and our dog surrounding a dead mouse in our dining room. The three of them were just staring at it with very confused looks on their faces. I guess once they killed it, they didn't know what to do with it. After reading everyone's responses to Karen, I'm now convinced we probably have hundreds of those nasty little critters (or will very soon). So, tomorrow morning DH will be putting traps everywhere!

The only good mouse is a DEAD mouse. Sorry if I hurt anyones feelings on that, but I have a good friend who was very, very ill last Christmas from Hanta Virus from cleaning up the mouse droppings in his shed. They are dirty, destructive little pests and where there is one there are 12 more. You have no idea the mess they can make out of wiring, (a fire hazzard), baseboards, (yes they will make those little holes just like in the cartoons, and if you don't believe me, come see the one in my pantry) upholstry,(love to nest in your couch cushions, garden cushions, and car seats) as well as destroying any food stuffs they can chew their way to. Get a snap trap or a continuous grainery trap and get rid of the little monster. Rose

This is a great site, although it's been a while since I looked at it. Thanks for the reminder. I love that the description of this house is "of rather plain design"! I was hoping to find my simple little house there but the emphasis seems to be far more on the fancier houses. The closest thing would be the Cottage for a Mill Hand, which is what mine originally was also - we have the same general arrangement of living room (parlor) in the front, DR behind it (although my house has no fireplaces), and kitchen in the other back corner, but a long narrow front hall back to the kitchen with a straight stair on one side instead of the square one. This is the typical design for this style house in my area; there are thousands of them, since from the early 19th century to WWI there were hundreds of factories here (primarily textiles, shoes and other leather goods, and wood products) and there was great demand for cheap, simple housing. Just as in the pictured house, my house originally had no indoor bathroom - until they were made illegal in the 1960s there was an outhouse out back, just 100 yards from a river! The exterior is very different though.

I just noticed that Mouse is marked identical to my favorite cat of all time. I've had several blue cats with white feet but he also had that little white spot to the side of his nose. I called him Rain Man. I found him dumped out in cold, February rain. He had a sister but I couldn't catch them. I left food and a box on it's side. The next day I was able to grab him but his sister wasn't there. I came back again, but couldn't find her. He was one of those animals that my husband would greet when he came in before he even spoke to me. He'd always say, "Rain Man! How's daddy's boy?" :D