Meet Timmy Douse

I am an animal lover. However, when I see an animal in my home that is not supposed to be there, unsanitary, and comes out of nowhere - I want it gone :) I was sitting downstairs on the couch looking at my laptop and talking on the phone with Tammy when I saw something out of the corner of my eye run across the floor. I told Tammy, "I have to call you back, I could have sworn I just saw a mouse run across the room". We have never had ANY signs of having mice so it really took me off guard. I carefully and slowly moved some furniture out of the way and sure enough I saw it run into the corner under the coffee table, so of course I screamed and got on the couch. The kids were upstairs asleep and Kevin was at work so I was sitting there trying to figure out how to catch it all by myself before it got away. I called everyone I could asking them to come help and Tammy said she could leave work and come but it would be a little bit. I called Kevin and the first thing he asked was, "Is it cute?" :) One of the many reasons I love him, but not actually helpful at the time. If it was outside, or contained and not running around my house, yes - it was pretty cute - BUT I wanted it out of my house. While I was on the phone trying to figure out what to do it was under the couch and every now and then would poke his little head out, I'd scream at him and he'd go back under the couch. I got up enough courage to get down and move some more furniture around to try to trap it in that corner of the room and my plan was when Tammy got there I would get a bin and put some peanut butter in it, set it on it's side over there and hope that the mouse would go in, but I didn't want to take my eye off that area or else it would get away then I'd have no chance of finding it again. Right before Tammy got there Bradley woke up and came downstairs and was very confused about what was going on. I told him there was a mouse and had him get on the couch with me. He thought it was pretty fun and was asking what the mouse's name was, and I asked him what he thought and he said "Timmy Douse". He sat there with me talking about Timmy for a while until the mouse poked his head out again, I screamed, and then he got really scared and ran upstairs. He refused to come back down because he said it was going to bite him. Timmy was smart, it must have finally figured out that when he poked his head out, I didn't ACTUALLY do anything but scream at him, so he went for it and no matter how much I yelled at him to get back under the couch - he did not listen and ran away. Of course Tammy got there literally 2 minutes later and we looked but could not find him.
My mom gave me some sticky traps the next day, but I HATE those because I feel like it's a terrible death for the poor little mouse, so I didn't put them out. Then I was talking to Bill about the whole incident the next day and I was pointing down to the couch where it all happened while I was telling the story and there he was - Timmy was just sitting there right next to the couch in plain view! NOW I had help! I told Bill my plan, and while he kept saying "I don't think that's going to work Heidi..." I had him watch Timmy and yell at him to stay while I got the bin with peanut butter and put it over next to the couch. We waited a little bit and then Timmy took off into the bathroom and disappeared. Bill asked about 'real' traps and I told him I did have the sticky traps. He said "Heidi, you can't let this mouse run around the house with the kids, it's not sanitary, you need to catch it and get it out", so reluctantly I put the sticky traps in the bathroom and shut the door (and put a coffee table on its side in front of the door, just to make sure).
One day passed and no Timmy, then I put some mac and cheese from the kids lunch on the traps and checked about 30 min later and he was there, stuck on the trap, trying his best to get away - and I felt TERRIBLE! I called Kevin and he said, "Is there anyway you can get him off?" and I said, "No, those things are SO sticky, there's no way you could pry him off". So I told him it just makes me sad looking at him struggling and he said he'd see what he could do when he got home.
SO, Kevin gets home from a long day at work and right away goes to work on Timmy, he put him in a tub, went and got some tools and took him in the garage and tried and tried to get him free. After about half an hour he came in and looked really sad and said that he didn't think it was going to work. He was scared to try too hard and break his little legs or hurt him. So - I turned to Google!!! Right away I found an article that said to use Vegetable Oil, but you couldn't put too much on there or he could drown in it, and if his face and nose was stuck at all it was useless. So Kevin had to get his nose high enough off the trap so that he could pour some oil over him without him drowning in the oil. It sure is amazing what you can find on the Internet!!! Less than 5 minutes later, Timmy was free! Kevin came upstairs and said, "You know we have to keep him now, right?" and I told him that I figured that's where this was going. But we talked about it and figured he was a wild mouse and he would do better in the wild, so the next day Kevin took him to the park down the street and set him free and we said good-bye to Timmy Douse.
What an ordeal!!! :) He sure was cute though, even all oiled up :) And once again, I fall more in love with my husband and his great big heart!!!