a nest not of birds

[sergebroom]

This weekend was filled with excitement and surprise. I have been catching up with the current season of Doctor Who, and, as expected, am enjoying it. Besides that… Our home’s router went belly up, leaving us sans internet access one evening, so I went to a nearby store the following morning and, believe it or not, managed to install the whole thing without a problem. And I got a phonecall from fellow blogger Fragano, who confirmed where I thought Biggleswade was. (He says that I didn't sound like Inspecteur Clouseau on a week-long diet of pure caffeine, but he's a nice guy.) I also spent many hours throughout the weekend on what I hope (fingers firmly crossed, knuckles creaking in the process) is the backyard’s last weeding of this year. 2006’s Project from Hell had kept me so occupied that, by the time I could take care of the yard, it was too darn cold. Thus was the backyard a sorry sight for many months, until Spring sprang.

The weirdest excitement was when I found why Cagney, our youngest dog, was so obsessed with digging dirt out of one of our largest flower pots. He had gone so deeply that, with their roots very much exposed, there was no way, the flowers would survive. So, I started pulling the plants out, and they were followed by a large ball of soil. Under which I found 5 tiny grey mice now trapped at the bottom of the pot’s tall wall. Yes, they are vermin, and there is no penury of rodents in these parts, but I just couldn’t kill them, especially as they huddled so close to each other, silent, probably terrified. I did the best thing I could think of and took them and the pot to the very top of our backyard and gently poured them out on the other side of the brick wall, which is a wilderness area. Maybe they won’t make it, but they’ll stand a better chance than the two who had managed to escape from the pot and which Cagney and Nahla later caught up with.

Comments

I'd be in your boat

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

re the itty mice.

they''re probably some species of field mice that are bitty, and I wouldn''t have the heart to hurt the little things.

i have a friend that, before the house mouse population in his house exploded, would take the live trap to the back yard, call the dogs and let the mice out. if the mice ran for the fence they were okay. If they dithered, the were dog toys.

When he had the overflow the advertising agency I was working for had a box of a Boehringer-Ingelheim product called Trap in a Sack that was a rodent poison in a forumulation that a dog could eat as much as it could stand and it wouldn't hurt them (it looked like sweet corn kernals but wasn't really) but it was tasty and deadly to rodents.

So much so that I gave them the surplus case, they took out packets to distribute in the kitchen but put the case in the basement. They had RATS come to the case and gorge themselves, then die on the spot and still other rats repeated (Rats usually avoid dead rats with a real passion)

You did a Very Good Deed by those itty mice. If they have language you will become a god...

[miltonthales.livejournal.com]

I sympathize with the mouse release, but. I left a paper sack of mangos and avocados on the kitchen table last night, and this morning I found that a mouse or rat had chewed through the bag to get at a mango (the largest of the three, too!). They don't seem to care about the sticky traps I have around, and I'm not fond of the classic trap.

It's the tropics and all that, but damn I hate rats.

Re: I'd be in your boat

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I have used the old-fashionned traps in the past and I hated seeing the results. I guess that makes me a sap, but I just don't like killing.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

No rodent has ever come inside the house, as far as I can tell, probably because we have three dogs and one stupid cat. But I've seen traces of the presence of mice in the garage, which is why I now keep bird feed in hard-plastic containers, not in the original bags.

[miltonthales.livejournal.com]

They've chewed through screened windows to get in here. One memorable morning I found a rodent scurrying along a curtain rod above an interior window, with Tigger the Pointer barking like it was Godzilla. Eventually we got it out.