Run Forest Run!

Last night after a particularly exhausting and painful day (yes woman can and will do that to you, but that's another story in itself), I came home to relax. While laying on the couch, I heard a strange noise coming from my basement. I did what any lazy person would do after a long day, I muted the TV to further investigate, instead of getting off my ass and going to check it out. Of course there was silence, not a noise made. I turned the TV back up and a few minutes later the noise had returned. Again I did the mute trick and again, silence. This time I knew I wasn't hearing things so I turned the TV back up once more and continued to listen with both ears - one on Sports Center and the other on the strange basement noise. Sure enough a few minutes had passed and the noise started up again, but this time it was really "active". I had no choice but to solve the great mystery and go see what was going on.

To my surprise/delight/discus I saw I had caught a mouse! About a month ago I noticed some scratches and a few mouse poos (yeah I know gross) around my basement door and garage. Naturally I wasn't happy about that. I don't have a cat to do my mouse catching and my dog is worthless when it comes to this type of thing, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I decided that I need to look for where they were getting in and to set some traps to catch the intruder (perhaps intruderS). I found a few holes in the garage, but not much in the basement. I plugged the holes and set out the traps with a little peanut butter (works better than cheese in my experience). The traps hadn't seen much action since I had set them. I figured it was just a one time visitor and he had come and gone and that would be the end of it. So now a month later it looks like he is either back or he invited a friend to the crib. The night before I had heard some strange noises that were mixing in with my dreams. Now looking back, it makes sense. The mouse got caught in the middle of the night and had spent that night and all of yesterday trapped. You would think when I came home from work, I would of heard nothing and just discovered him dead...but not this fighter.

I am not a hunter. I couldn't ever see the sense in shooting an animal I have no intention of eating. Sorry but I don't find the "thrill of the hunt". I find the "bore of the hunt". I certainly am not the type of person who is into hanging deer antlers, rabbit feet, rodent furs and other crap around my house - just not my style. Although I do enjoy fishing - relaxing. Anyways, when I get a mouse in the house, I feel the need to kill it. Why? Well unless you plan on driving 5 miles down the road to drop him off alive, then he will just come right back into the house. So you sort of have to kill him. Unfortunately for this little brown mouse, his death didn't occur at the snap of the trap. No for him the trap snapped his face, locking him there helpless. He ran, kicked and fought hard to set himself free but to no avail. Therefore when I came home to find that he was still alive and had been fighting this going on 12+ hours. Like me, he was exhausted and in pain. I felt pity for him and decided to break him free, ending his suffering. It was sort of like Forest Gump breaking the leg braces off and running with a new found respect for life and never looking back. (Ok maybe not that dramatic, but I could of shouted RUN FOREST RUN!)

Do you think I did the good thing here in setting the little guy free, ending his pain and suffering? Or should I of just killed him and not of given him a second chance knowing he more than likely would find his way back into my house? I know setting a trapped mouse free is far from heroic, or anything special for that matter. I guess I just felt bad knowing he was down there suffering so long and for what reason - because he was following his instinct to search for food and shelter? You can't really say he's wrong there. I just wish he didn't pick my house. It truly sucks being in pain and suffering from anything. A little kindness can go a long way. How hard is it to show some compassion, even if it's just a mouse? Maybe some good will come from it. Isn't that what karma is all about?

Tomorrow I will be posting a little project that some of you may want to do this weekend. It coincides with this past Wednesday's post - hint, hint. I was going to post it today, but I thought I would mix it up and share my tale here instead.

***UPDATE***
Sad news to report...later last night I discovered the mouse dead about 30 feet or so from where I released him. RIP little fellow. I tried, but in the end it looks like karma got you since you were making your way back towards the house to enter again. Too bad you had to learn the hard way. I can't help but feel the efforts I put out in different areas of my life continue to go unnoticed (unless I point them out like in this post). It seems to be pointless to do things when the outcome is never what you hoped for or expected.