Our Mouse

This mouse invaded our house, thus beginning the conflict between him and us. He foiled the first trap easily, snitching the cheese and evading death. I responded with four traps smeared with peanut butter. He licked them all clean. I attempted to use my higher order thinking skills, smearing the PB on the springs, under the bait pedal, on the trigger arm, etc, in hopes of making him set it off... all to no avail. Then I found the plans for the Poor Man's mousetrap on the internet:

Put a dab of bait in a toilet paper or paper towel tube. Balance it on the edge of the mouse-ridden countertop in such a way that if he crawls in and goes to the other end, he will unbalance it and tip it off the edge of the counter. Place an empty trashcan below to catch him in. Humanely discard mouse in the morning.

This plan worked! Except that my cat tipped over the trashcan with the mouse in it while I was at work, thus freeing it. Luckily, kitty cornered the mouse under our grandfather clock, where it cowered all day until I got home. Still, it was quite surprising to look under the clock and see that pair of beady eyes staring out at me. With no small amount of screaming, my wife and I managed to capture the mouse in this cookie jar. I then popped him into our coffee grinder and... No, just kidding. We let him go in a wilderness rodent preserve near our house.