Curly Girl: 2, Mice: 0

I had begun Operation Demousification - a lifestyle-changing process of keeping the pantry door tightly shut, the dog's food bowl up off the floor and covered, garbage can empty, no source of food anywhere and no hiding spots available - and the starvation tactic was making the mousies really bold. The cheeky little bastards were out at all hours and I was seeing them more than was necessarily comfortable. After I saw undeniable evidence that they had been on my kitchen counter (O!M!G!), I had had it. I didn't really want to kill them - micies are people too, after all - I just didn't want them in my house.

I had narrowed down where it was they were coming and going from and decided to get expanding foam to block the egress. As it turns out, after I got back from the hardware store, little mousy made his presence known in my studio. I heard a noise in the boxes I use to store the various gauges of silver wire and, sure enough, there he was. His fear seemed to paralyze him because he could easily have jumped out, but I managed to get a bag over the box and the mouse, and relocated the little guy about a block away (no, not to someone else's house). Because my camera was within arms reach, I got a picture just before bagging him up. Kinda cute, huh? The box is about 5" across, so you can tell how small he is.

A second relocation opportunity presented itself today when, about an hour after the first, I was in the kitchen putting on shoes to take Kana for a walk and I heard a peculiar noise. Mousy Two had gotten himself into a spot he couldn't get out of. I grabbed a grocery bag and the made a second trip down the street to let this little guy join his friend.

I still plan on plugging up the holes. Where there's one (or two) mousies, there are bound to be others.