A Tap in the Night

The rest of my family is long asleep and I am up answering emails and such. I am all wrapped up in flannel jammies, trying desperately to stay warm. I sit here in the silence, listening to DH breathing and the soft meowing of the new kittens in our closet. It is peaceful and I am alone.

Then I hear it. A soft tap, tap, tapping noise on the back door. I should point out that our back door is in our room and leads to a covered porch/mudroom area. Anyway, then I hear scratching noises. I flip on the back light, peer out the window in the door, but see nothing. All is quiet for a bit. Screech, squeal, scratch...those are the next noises and this time I see who is making them. It's mice! Eek! They are making a lot of noise and strangely enough, no one in the whole house seems to care. Now, I know when the cold sets in mice want to come in the house. I know living in the middle of a field makes us more prone to mice. But, I don't have to like them.

Image by sean dreilinger via Flickr

I am currently resisting the urge to toss poor Cookie outside to attack them, but taking her away from feeding her babies seems quite cruel. I suppose I could try to coax Annabelle outside, but she would probably just stare at them, anyway. Plus, if I open the door, they might very well run in while I'm throwing the cat out!

The really bad part of this story? Well, it addresses how bad I am at housewifery. You see, in my infinite wisdom, I sorted through all the dirty laundry, put appropriate loads in all the hampers, then drug them out on the back porch. My thought was that they are closer to the laundry room this way. I got a good chunk of this laundry done today. But, their are still hampers out there! Mice are probably eating my clothes as I type this. I am too scared to go get the hampers back in the house because 1. I could bring the mice in with them and 2. I am like crazy afraid of the little rodents. So, I am sitting here, fretting about our laundry, hoping we don't all get the Hantavirus from the rodents, listening to their little clawed feet scurry about. I seriously think they are climbing up my walls and trying to chew through the door. I doubt three little mice could do that, but there is probably a whole mouse army I didn't see. I am freaking out!

So, lesson learned, I will not put the laundry hampers on our enclosed back porch ever again, no matter how great of an idea it seems like at the time. To all you other country wives and moms, how do I get rid of these things?!?

Y'all have a good night.