From me to you

Round 1: The Battle BeginsYesterday afternoon turned out to be a remarkably slow day, so by the time the sun set I was running out of entertainment options. It was at this point my roommate, who I have now nicknamed Phantom, made an appearance. His arrival was marked by a strange rattling sound, which was followed by the sound of a pebble dropping on to my floor. It turned out that my furry friend had picked up some kind of candy in the house and was attempting to roll it up my dresser. I am well past the point where the sight of a mouse will send me to the top of the closest table. Quite the opposite, actually. With visions of a female Crocodile Hunter settling in the back of my mind, I hurried to grab the candy from the mouse and move it out to the middle of the floor. The reason I call my mousemate Phantom is that I cannot for the life of me get a picture of him. However, I thought for sure that if I staked out this candy long enough I would have my picture.
Unfortunately, my bladder had other plans so I had to step out of the room for a moment (after securing the candy, of course). When I came back, I sweetened the deal by adding a couple pieces of an animal cracker to the bait. Then I settled back behind the mesquito net with my camera and waited. However, my camera shy tenant was once again a step ahead of me. While I was out, he had switched positions to directly underneath my bed, so I was completely unprepared when he raced out, grabbed one of the crackers, and swept under the dresser before I had a chance to hit the power button. I waited for a while for him to come back for the other pieces, but either he sensed a trap or he simply didn’t care for animal crackers, because he never returned.Phantom 1
Karrie 0

Foiled Again So I was working on the price tags for my artisans yesterday, and decided to have a snack of cheese and crackers.  Now, like most my activities that can be done sitting down, I was working/eating in my bed because of the mosquito protection it provides.  I had to leave the room for a second, but I figured my food was safe because it was under the net.  But no, somehow the phantom found its way into the bed and was making a mad dash for the floor when I came back in the room.  I knew I was going to have to figure out how he got in there, but first, I was going to get a picture.I put the mouse-nibbled food on the floor, jumped on the bed with my camera, and waited.  Sure enough, he was soon sniffing his way to the middle of the floor.  Chuckling with glee, I pressed the button on my camera to take the shot…. and my camera shut off.  The batteries had died.  I could not believe it.  I’d been sabatoged!!  The phantom, who by now had grabbed a bit of cracker, sauntered back under the dresser.  I swear there was a gloating twitch to his tail.Phantom 2
Karrie 0It´s not over yet….

The Phantom’s RevengeAs most of you know, I was finally able to capture the Phantom on film after many weeks of grueling suspense. The miraculous capture of the villian resulted in the banishment and, as far as I knew, death of this infamous creature. But my success was short-lived. The shadow that was cast by the Phantom has not faded, as I thought it would, but has grown in it’s treacherousness. How is that possible, you ask? Let me tell you… A few days ago I woke to discover that the last of my toilet paper had been torn to shreds. How did they know that I only had enough left for that morning? There must be an informant. And then, a couple of days later, I discovered another malicious act – someone had chewed through the wrapper of my M&Ms package (a valued gift from my beloved brother), licked the color off of the M&Ms, then left them in the package so I could discover them later. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined such cruelty. So far, no one has stepped forward to claim responsibility for these heinous acts. This is probably because they fear sharing the same fate as the Phantom, and therefore continue to stay hidden. But don’t worry, eventually they will become careless again. And when they do, I’ll be waiting…

 Ambushed I am strengthening my defenses in my room after the Phantom´s friends launched a surprise attack early one morning last week.  I was sound asleep, feeling naively safe under my mosquito net, a little after 5 in the morning.  Suddenly, I was jolted awake by the feeling of small teeth on my skin.  Let me tell you people, nothing will wake you up faster than this.  Adrenaline rushing through my newly awakened limbs, I did the one thing every human being instinctively does in a moment like this, I yelled.  I´m a little hazy on the exact wording, but I believe I said something like ¨Whoa!¨ followed quickly by ¨You have got to be kidding me!¨.  However, to the mouse that had dared to invade my sanctuary, I´m sure it sounded a whole lot more sinister. 
 
After a brief moment where we stared each other in the eye, we both dashed off – him for the assumed safety of the darkness under the bed, and me for the light switch.  As luck would have it, the electricity was off, and my flashlight was hidden away somewhere.  After checking my hand to make sure the fiend hadn´t broken the skin (which he hadn´t, but I am attributing that to my lightning-quick reflexes), I spent the next thirty minutes back in my bed, keeping watch.  It´s not that I was scared at the idea of mice walking around me as I slept, so don´t think that.  I was simply waiting to see if he would make another appearance so I could attack with more than just words (pillow fight has a totally different meaning when you are a mouse).  However, he stayed out of sight, most likely trembling in fear and astonishment over his actions. 
 
As he should… A veteran makes a rookie mistake After the run-by-biting incident, I realized I needed to reassess my defenses.  In other words, I needed to figure out why my mosquito net wasn`t keeping out the larger critters.  Originally, my net was tucked directly underneath my mattress on all sides, except for at the top, where I had wrapped it around the headboard before tucking it under the mattress.  I had done this to create a little more head room, but decided that the trade wasn`t worth it.  After double checking that my net was securely tucked under the mattress on all four sides, I left for the capital city for a few days, knowing that if my bed was mouse pellet-free when I returned then my new net arrangement was a winner.  Not only did my new arrangement succeed in keeping the mice out of my bed, I didn`t even see or hear a mouse for almost a week.  It is amazing how quickly you get comfortable in a mouse-free room.  I got too comfortable apparently, because I forgot to shut the door to my food cupboard.  I left the room for maybe ten minutes, and came back to shut the door.  I bet you can see where this is headed… I had been bragging to a couple of people that day about how I was able to take care of my mouse problem without actually having to resort to poisoning them (I still feel bad, they`re just so cute).  I think they had heard it, and decided to take action.  It`s either that, or they had been laying low to get my guard down.  Regardless, they waited until I was relaxing in my room, reading a book, before they started crunching on something in my cupboard.  Still confident from my 4-day absence of vermin, I sauntered over to the cupboard.   And this, my friends, is where the experts disagree.  The facts are that a small, furry creature jumped out of the cupboard and landed safely on the ground.  But in my memory, it was no where near that simple… As I said, I sauntered over to the cupboard, confident in my ability to silence the one in charge of the crunching.  But as I searched in the cupboard, I found nothing.  This mouse must have the skills of a ninja and the speed of a mongoose, because without any warning – no sound of pattering feet running or the rustling of plastic as a small body forces its way past – I had a mouse leaping out of the cupboard aiming, not for the floor, but for me.  I`m telling you, this mouse was determined to finish what the other had failed to do – bite my hand.   But my confidence was not entirely unfounded.  I am, afterall, a veteran of the Phantom Wars.  I was able to pull my hand back just in time.  The mouse had committed himself to the air by this point and had no choice but to continue his leap to the ground… and then vanish.  I`m serious about this.  I never saw him leave the room, but he was no where to be found.   The battles have begun anew… 

The Phantom Prince

It had been a rather uneventful week in the Phantom War, but having learned from last week’s lesson, I wisely kept my guard up.  And this time, my diligence was rewarded.  The Phantom armies made a fatal mistake – they did not stock up on enough food supplies to satisfy their army’s appetite.  The rebels were getting desperate.  They began rummaging through my trashcan, hoping I´d left a few morsels there (no chance).  They kept a watchful eye to see if I would leave the cupboard door open (and risk an attack like last time – no way).  Finally, they sent their Prince back to gather food supplies from their home country - the kitchen.However, I had not been sitting idly by while my territory was being invaded.  On the contrary, I had made allies with the larger residents of Phantomland and had developed these relationships to the point where I could pass into their land without detection.  Even the guard dogs had been turned to my side.And so, when the Prince was eating a relaxing dinner, forgetting to stay alert in the comforts of his home, I was able to take these shots.  The tide has turned…

On a more realistic note, this mouse is tiny!  Now do you see why I have trouble with the idea of killing them?  He is sitting on a coaster, and in the second picture there is a barrette, half hidden by a bag, that I put there so you could have a size reference.  He’s about as long as half my thumb.  So the question is, how does something that small poop so much?