Sunday: While on the phone with my parents, 7pm-ish, I see out of the corner of my eye what looks a lot like Suspicious Movement. Something skittering under the dishwasher (ugh). I send an online service request (love this feature) saying "Um, guys, think there may be mice in my kitchen." A couple of hours later, I hear a Noise and go in there and startle a Genuine Mouse away from one of my wire shelves; it runs away under the cabinets and I toss the 1/4 loaf of bread it has just gnawed the end of through the bag. I send another service request: "I wasn't wrong, there are totally mice, my kitchen is clean so this is NOT OKAY."
Monday: I get home to find a note that they've been and put down traps under the dishwasher and near the gap where I said I'd seen the thing run off. Later, 9-ish, I hear a Noise and go in there and startle a Genuine Mouse away from the other one of my wire shelves; all dry goods remain unharmed. (New loaf of bread is now on top of the refrigerator.) I send another service request: "Mouse is untrapped, in fact it is running places where you didn't put traps (under stove, e.g.). Can there be more traps, gaps sealed, poison?"
Tuesday: No service record. Mouse peers out from under cabinets 8-ish, Looks at me (I swear we made eye contact), runs away again; a little later it sniffs its way from under the stove to under the dishwasher, but appears to remain Untrapped. I send another service request: "Mouse is avoiding traps, y'all, and I'm happy to keep sending daily service notices until it goes away. :-)" I also begin thinking about the hardware store, steel wool, and wire mesh. (Steel wool to lay down under the appliances; sturdy wire mesh to make fences for the gaps between the appliances and the cabinets and the walls.)
Today: Service record notes that they've closed the hole under the sink and put glue traps under the stove and in the cabinet under the sink. Closed the hole under the sink! What a concept!
This was never an issue before this weekend, and the thing is just snooping around the edges of the kitchen; I know the kitchen is clean, and I can Take Steps to make sure anything it might want to nibble on is somewhere it can't reach. (In fact when our eyes met last night it may have been glaring at me for moving the bread. Evil giant monkey, that's me.) But still, EW. The last thing I need is a Mouse Visitor just when it's starting to get cool; when it freezes I'll be overrun.
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