Mouse update.....

Earlier today we made a special trip to a local hardware store to buy a humane mouse trap.  It's a proper old school shop with every spare inch of wall, ceiling and floor space crammed with all manner of house and garden essentials.

I stepped inside and paused in the gloom, trying to decide where to start looking, when the shopkeeper emerged from behind a stack of birch brooms and enquired if I needed any help.

Me: Do you have any humane mouse traps?
Him: *in an unspecified but charmingly intriguing Eastern European accent, possibly Transylvanian* Yes. Ve do.  Come.

He led me deep into the recesses of the shop to a shelf packed with a bewildering array of items intended to trap, maim and/or kill rodents of various sizes. He stood musing for a moment, then selected one and handed it to me.

Him: Ve have this.  Is good. Come.

I meekly followed him back to the shop counter, also piled high with merchandise and only distinguishable as a counter due to the presence of a till.

Me: *gazing at the contraption*  Errrm... how does it work?  I haven't seen one like this before.
Him: I show.  Is easy.  Look.  This part... squeeze. Comes off.  This part... move so.  Mouse come.  Go in. Paw on THIS....and.... *a small trapdoor gently closes, trapping the rodent*
Me:*impressed*  Ahh... I see.
Him: What you use?  Put poison?
Me:*horrified*  No! What's the point of buying a humane trap and baiting it with poison?
Him:*shrugging* Ok. No mind. Put chocolate.  Or peanut butter.  Mouse like peanut butter.
Me:*warily* It's transparent.  We'll be able to see it.  The mouse.  If we catch it.
Him:*rolls eyes* Of course?  Is easy. Black one... must shake.  To check if mouse inside. 
*he shakes the trap violently*  See?  Mouse not like.
*he then executes a mime, demonstrating how a mouse would have to spread itself out inside the tube, all four paws braced against a side to prevent it being thrown around.
Me:*speechless* Ah.  Right.  Yes. I  do see.
Him: £5.99 please.
Me:*counting out change and trying to inject a note of levity* So *laughing lightly* if it doesn't work can I bring it back?
Him:*firmly* No.  Will work.  Bye.
Me:*quietly* Thanks... bye.

So, tonight the trap is baited and set in the gap where mousekin disappeared yesterday.  We will give Small Dog the run of the house as usual tonight, and hope that if by some miracle she catches it (which admittedly is extremely unlikely) she doesn't then bring it upstairs and drop it on the bed.

PP has also set up her little infra-red motion sensor camera on the floor in the kitchen, so we might at least capture it on camera if it makes any nocturnal expeditions.

To be continued.....