Pickles by Brian Crane for December 10, 2021

What are you trying to do Earl. Give Opal a stroke.

Maybe Roscoe got curious and it snapped on his tongue. Or Nelson decided to play with it. Or maybe Earl simply forgot where he put it.

What kind of mouse trap do you use when you have pets?

It was swell knowing you Opal

I’ll go with the former possibility.

The same has happened in my parents’ house many times. None of the traps ever turned up

PSA:

I got tired of hunting for the source of that dead and rotten mouse odor in the (overfull) garage. So I drilled a small hole in each of the traps and tied on a 4-foot (more or less) string. That helped… but not 100%. Now I also put something heavier than a mouse on the other end. Usually the corner of a container of some sort.

I suspect one of them will find the trap the next time they get out of bed late at night (barefoot) to use the loo.

Garfield Classics this morning may hold the clue.

I welcome our rodent overseers

That’s nothing, we’ve had pet rats.

Earl is really going to get it now.

Where’s Muffin?!

You mean your home is being invaded by the X-Mice, Earl?

I’d check with Roscoe and Muffin, frankly.

A mice mutiny

Mighty Mouse? !

Prolly the Rats of NIMH. . .

You REALLY need to stop sharing…..

My brother had a few mice. His big tomcat played with them.That’s all, no murder, just played hide and seek, cat style.

Told my brother, he must have a Buddhist Cat.

True story

I heard my cat in the middle of the night running around furiously…Got up and saw a tiny mouse trapped in the corner by my cat. I tried to get the mouse and he scooted all over the place…meanwhile the cat is going nuts…but after many attempts to get the mouse, he disappeared under the couch never to be seen again….

(((((((((( GASP! ))))))))

He was so darned cute too! Since that night, I haven’t seen a single mouse in my house……LOL!

I like the electronic ones because they’re the most humane but mice have gotten smart and won’t go into them.

EEK…….is right.

Cornered one in my greenhouse. It just crouched down and stayed there shivering. I had a large stick and was going to hit it, but …..couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. Afraid I’d rather go with the poison traps.

I stopped using snap traps. Three times, I witnessed a mouse still alive while caught in one. I switched to live capture traps, but now realize releasing a mouse into what is, to her, an unfamiliar area is also cruel.

So, what should I do?

Don’t you just hate it when mighty mutant mice maraud?

Muffin talked Roscoe into sniffing the mouse trap too closely….

BUNNIES!

Earl on mouse duty ! 24 Hours a day ….. 7 days a week !

We had a Lab named Cleo that was a kleptomaniac. She was always stealing things from various neighbors on our road; dog bowls, 2 cow skulls, ceramic bird feeders and yes, mouse and rat traps.

I once caught a shrew in a mousetrap. It was so small the bail passed over it’s body and caught it by the tail. I released it and it scuttled into the bushes cursing me. Sailors could have taken lessons from the language that shrew used on me!

“Make a better mousetrap, and the government might ban it.

The mouse that burrowed under the siding/insulation panel, next to my outside door, stays in his place while I am in mine. I sometimes see his little dark gray arse coming and going across the concrete. I have seen mouses scamper past my door in years past to get to the grassy area adjacent. I occasionally leave sunflower seeds and mixed nuts at his “door” and they disappear without fail.