The Great Mouse Detective

For the past several weeks I've had a little mouse friend in my house.  His only objective of each day was to climb up the side of my fireplace from the basement and climb my pet bird Gizmo's cage to eat his food in the middle of the night.

So I set out to Menards to get a trap and I stood there for at least ten minutes debating on what trap to get.  I just couldn't will myself to reach for anything other than a live trap no matter how long I stood there.  I brought it home, set it up in the basement, and placed a peanut butter cracker inside.  Weeks went by to no avail so I moved it up into the living room and placed it on the floor next to Gizmo's cage.  Still nothing.  I even took Gizmo's food and trailed it up to the trap yet every morning it remained empty. 

A few days ago I started removing Gizmo's food at night just to keep him from crawling into his bowls and leaving mouse remnants behind.  Last night he was obviously hungry enough to go near the trap because this morning when I checked it I was surprised to see he was in it.  He was all curled up tight in a ball and I thought he perished overnight and I was so upset.  I jostled the trap looking for any sign of life...and then he moved.  I quickly got dressed, hopped in my car, and drove a couple of miles down the road from my house to release him into the woods.

I'm so happy I bought a live trap and I encourage everyone else to do the same.  It just makes you feel so good to do something kind even for the smallest of creatures.  It was extremely easy to remove him from the house and release him and now he's relocated and living happily in the woods where mice belong :)  Here's a photo of my cute little friend before I let him go, peanut butter cracker and all!