It's not a mouse. It's a...large mouse. Roommate, who handles our home's icky affairs, reports a large, long-whiskered, long-haired, long-tailed mouse in the trap. "Are you sure it wasn't just a fat mouse?" I wailed. These guys have been feasting on cocoa butter for almost a week! I made Roommate repeat the description: large, long whiskers, long tail, long hair, light brown. Light brown? "Oh!" I exclaimed. "Rats do not come in light brown, only black, and white for lab rats." In an official, know-it-all tone, I continued. "If it was light brown, it was probably...a vole." "A vole?" she asked. Now, I heard of a vole once. I think they're gray rodents. Close enough. "Oh yes, voles. I see them at night sometimes in the yard." Completely making it up as I went, I added more details. "Voles are common in the area and they are bigger than mice and light brown and quite sneaky to boot. They are actually originally from Africa, but were introduced to the country during the slave trade era. It makes sense that they were attracted to the cocoa butter in the soap, because coconuts were their main food source back in Africa."
I have no idea whether there are even coconuts in Africa, and I think Roommate, being a farm girl, knows perfectly well what a vole looks like and that large mice come in light brown. But for now, we can both sleep convinved that our resident critter is just a cute stowaway from the tropics. Tropics of Africa.
The good news is that the voles are confined to a single back room in the basement. Roommate found their entryway and sealed it with sheet metal using some kind of fun-looking tool. That small room is now layered with more traps and baited with, of course, cocoa butter.
Honestly, if I was anything more than a glass-with-dinner sort of girl, I'd have a very stiff drink in my hands right now. I know that some of you have to contend with Texas-sized flying cockroaches, tarantuas, and snakes, and are probably giggling at a rodent. Which is why, sorry, I won't be visiting you.
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Free party at Petsmart tonight, 6-8pm.
Picture credit.
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