MOUSE!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

We woke up to find that a MOUSE HAD BEEN IN THE PANTRY OVERNIGHT!  Oh, you vile little creature, you. When I opened the pantry door to get breakfast ready, I found a bit of white fluff floating around. As I wondered what that was, I started pulling things out. Then … I noticed that the roll of paper towels had been gnawed on. Now I knew for certain – a mouse had gotten in! Musta crawled up a tire and then into the van somehow.

Oh, gross.

And it wasn’t just bedding he was looking for. He found an unopened package of pistachios that he chewed his way into. And apparently he was pretty hungry.

As I unpacked the pantry (cursing the evil rodent the entire time, mind you), I kept finding evidence of him on both pantry shelves. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh.

I then went over in to the bathroom storage compartment to get the Pine-Sol and my dustpan and brush. When I pulled them out, I found that a roll of toilet paper had also been gnawed through about a third of the way. Egads – he’d made it to the other side of the van, getting to know his way around.

I was not happy.

Mouse 1 : Chris 0

I did a bit of personal business and made a few phone calls. (This included making a call to a CampingWorld in Minneapolis who CAN take my van early next week when I am there. My wastewater pipe will finally be fixed. Hooray!)

On my way out of the campground, I stopped at the office to check in on a few things. I mentioned the mouse to the lady upfront, and she told me about these plant-based sachets that you can get that disorient mice. I figured it was worth a try, so on my way in to Ann Arbor that afternoon, I stopped at a close-by RV place and got a package of three sachets of balsam fir oil. According to the product display, this was a botanical solution that actually short-circuits a mouse’s important sense of smell (they can only see eight inches in front of them; smell is their primary sense). The mouse realizes it can no longer tell where it is, or if danger is close, so it leaves.

Not wanting to kill anything that was just trying to survive (even if it was not invited into my camper), I bought some.

Then Auggie and I headed in to Ann Arbor to do a little walking around. We saw the original Borders store  - it’s an Ann Arbor business! (sadly, now, boasting its going-out-of-business signs). 

Also some cool old theaters. And you know you are in Wolverine territory when storefronts show nothing but blue and gold Michigan wear!

On Main Street, Ann Arbor, I also saw the “Cherry Republic” store, full of local Michigan specialties.

Shevon joined us after work and showed us one of the twelve “fairy doors” that are hidden around town. (There is also apparently a fairy village, but we didn’t see that.) 

We also walked over to the Kerrytown section of town to see the (world-famous?) Zingerman’s delicatessen. Since I don’t eat meat or cheese, and Auggie was with us, we didn’t go inside. But it looks yummy! 

We walked back to Main Street to have dinner at the Jolly Pumpkin, one of the many local breweries. We sat outside with Auggz, and eventually got rained on. (Thanks, Shevon, for having a sense of humor about eating while wet.) I thought it an interesting coincidence that the menus were made to look like mousetraps. Beer was good, food was good, and the rain cooled us off from a very hot day.

We drove Shevon home and saw her cute new house. Then we did some quick shopping and headed back to camp. Before going to sleep, we put the pistachios in a plastic baggie, set one mouse-chasing sachet in the pantry, one in the bathroom storage compartment and one at the front of the van. Good night.