All the creatures were stirring!

Well, I knew Aflo had mice in her when I bought her.  After all, she'd been sitting in a field unused for at least a year.  I'd found little pellet droppings when I cleaned it out, but saw no other signs of any mice activity, until....

One morning in West Virginia, I woke to find a bag of homemade granola I had in my open, soft-sided cooler had a hole chewed in it and there were pieces of granola on the floor.  Hmmmmm.....OK, time to buy some mousetraps, so,

Useless piece of crap trap.

For a week, no sign nor sound of the critter, so I thought maybe it had just been a wandering mouse who'd found its way in for a snack one night.  Then,camped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, I had just settled down for a good night's sleep when I heard scurrying sounds behind the walls and in the ceiling, next to me, above me, below me, and what was that - felt something run across the covers on me!  Eeeek!  Get up, set the traps with peanut butter and granola and settle down to watch and wait.   I watched, alright, as a mouse, not at all afraid of the flashlight, took the food off and looked at me as if to say, "Yeah, what?".  Stupid trap didn't even move. 

Plan B: bucket, floor mat and me, crouched, bucket suspended over the bait to slam it down over the little monster.  AHA! Caught it!  Flip over, toss the whole thing outside.  Settled down to sleep when I heard it again!  Did it get back in?  OH NO!  Got up, did the whole routine over, this time taking it to the campground toilet to flush it down.  So sorry, but couldn't take it again.  Aaaaah, peace and quiet.  Until - AGAIN!!! Repeated the whole process, caught and flushed another one!.  Finally fall asleep. 

The next day, I take the van in to a shop to see why the generator won't charge the house battery and the repair guy finds a HUGE nest inside a storage box next to, yep, important wires that connect things like generators and batteries!!!  He said he saw two more mice. 

NOT my actual photo of the nest, but you get the idea.

So, after $300 worth of repairs, and his assurance that he was able to shop vac up the mice, I take off, feeling a lot better.  Especially as I'm picking up my friend Susan, from California, in Colorado Springs and don't want her to go through what I just did. But, stop to buy two live traps, just in case any more critters decide to board later.

Forward 5 days, Brown's Canyon National Monument where we have had a beautiful sunset and supper overlooking the Arkansas River.  Lights out, settle down, and.....more mouse scurrying!  We hear the trap door shut, so we get up, grab a flashlight and head for the campground toilet to drop it down.  Stubborn little bugger must be clinging to the peanut butter for dear life, as no amount of shaking gets it out.  So, I set it on the ground, open the door (from behind) and watch as a dazed little mouse scurries off into the dark in the opposite direction from us, fortunately!  But we still hear more scurrying feet in the night.  How many of these little critters were there in that nest?  And I'm sure the repairman lied - he most certainly did NOT vacuum up any mice.

Deciding we need a better mousetrap, I buy a Tin Cat, the cadillac of traps. This is WAR!!!

 We set up all three traps for the night while we're mouse-free in the lodge at Cottonwood Hot Springs figuring they'll have the whole van to themselves and can party all night.  Sure enough, the next morning, there's one in the small trap.  We stop on the dirt road at the entrance to the drive in theater and let it out, figuring it can survive on popcorn; we jump in the van and get the heck out of there.  The instructions say to release the mice at least two miles from where you caught them!  Man, they can travel.

Final installment - yes, there were still mice left.  The Tin Cat did its job while we were at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and caught what I sincerely hope were the final of the little terrors.  We decided to release it the next day, so I felt compelled to feed the poor thing some apple (didn't want it to suffer, after all).

Drove to one of the lookouts 6 miles from camp to release the little guy and when I opened the trap, there were TWO!  Had a hard time encouraging them to leave, but finally they did.  One jumped in the bag I'd brought along but eventually scurried off.  At least they can be together out in the wild.  Just hope they didn't jump out at the two women who came along the trail as we were leaving.

Finally, two silent, peaceful, mouse-free nights!