The House of Mouse

Back in December of 1991, I was living in downtown Dayton, just North of the Little Miami River that cuts through the city. It was a small area of homes just on the back end of Hugh White Honda on Linwood Street.

I was working for Cap Gemini America and had a small three room apartment in a house that was built in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The house had a lot of character. I had the upper left apartment. Hannah lived across the hall from me on what was the other half of the second floor. She was an older lady, in her mid 70s, who had a nephew that stopped in weekly to check up on her.

As the weather got colder and living by the river, I was shocked to learn that mice had found their way into the house to seek warmth. It made sense though, a really old house likely has all sorts of ways that mice can get in.

The two neighbors downstairs included a young couple who had an annoying dog and my friends Ivan and Ivana. I have to call them that because they get angry when I write stories about them with their given names of Chris and Cindy. Both sets of neighbors had cats, which meant, they were mouse free. That left myself and Hannah to handle MouseQuest 1991 on our own.

I bought some mousetraps at Meijers late that Saturday night and set the first on at 12:45 Sunday afternoon. I settled into the ugly gray chair to watch my Bengals and I remember what a sunny day it was.

Right at 1:00, I heard a snap in the kitchen and it was so loud and out of the norm, I lept out of the chair wondering, "What the Hell was that?" Then I remembered I set a trap!

I ran into the kitchen and saw the most incredible sight. A mouse with the torso the size of my fist - I am NOT kidding - was trying his damndest to drag the mouse trap that snapped across his body back under the stove. This was the toughest freaking mouse I have ever seen. This was a rodent of unusual size and determinization.

He got under there before I could stop him, but he soon succummbed to his life altering injuries. I got a wire coat hanger and was able to fish him out.

I set the second trap moments later, placed it in the kitchen floor and went back to watch my Bengals.

At 1:15, I heard another SNAP!

This one died immediately.

I set the third trap.

At 1:30, like clockwork, SNAP!!!!! One of them was a really creepy looking two toned fuzzy mouse and there was a pool of blood on the trap and floor.

I set the fourth trap.

At 2:00, I was 4 for 4.

The mice were gradually getting smaller and taking longer and longer between catches as I wrangled 6 of them by the end of the game. That was all I caught as I think they renamed my apartment to Mousedor.

One does not simply scurry into Mousedor.

I scared the Hell out of Ivana when she took the lid off the garbage can and saw a mouse in there Monday morning. I was told by her to dispose of them in a better method going forward.

Later that week, Ivan and I were talking with Hannah. She always seemed to be such a nice and gentle elderly lady.

A mouse had fallen into her tub that week and she didn't know what to do.

She then told us a story that horrified me to this day.

The mouse could not get out of the tub and she was not about to just pick it up, so she needed to kill it the only way she could think of. She boiled a pot of water and killed it by pouring the boiling water and bleach on the mouse.

I learned that day from Hannah that a mouse is capable of screaming.

I always wondered if Hannah was a Nazi interogater in hiding after that day.

The mice did not ever come back into the house with the cats down stairs, the experienced mouse hunter in the top left and the Nazi torturer in the top right.

Word was out in the mouse community and they stayed clear of the House of Horrors.