The good news is that Isaac is himself again. Now he’s doing his nightly nude laps around the house and claiming to be… the flash! It’s been sort of a slog getting us both back into our blooming good health, but we’re both doing well. Other than an occasional hacking fit I’m feeling fine. So glad I brought in the big pharmaceuticals this time. Nothing like antibiotics and the really hard ass cough medicine when the going gets tough. Actually this whole two-week period has been one big celebration of the drug industry. When we were in the hospital and they were dosing Isaac with so many different types of asthma medication and various different ways of opening up his breathing passages, I was incredibly grateful and glad for all that R&D and all those massive costs that made it possible to get his lungs up and running again. Now he’s still got a fair amount of inhaled medication, and probably will for a while, and I think it’s really helping him get life back to normal.
Today we went to the zoo, which was our first outing of a normal kind since he’s been sick. I did worry , of course, about all those sneezy little children and their slimy little hands touching the same glass that he was also touching. But he can’t live in a plastic bubble. We just live by hand washing and hand sanitizer and prayer. He seems so much less frail though. ANd he’s eating like crazy and in huge quantities. He dropped from 30 lbs to 28 during his illness and now is at work to regain it all and then some.
OKAY… MEANWHILE, the bad news is that our house is being overrun by herds of mice. They are running in packs. It’s like some sort of horror movie. A couple weeks ago I was living in fear of actually SEEING one, in real life! I was wearing my shoes and feeling skittish all the time. ANd now, after a few days of intense immersion therapy, I can’t say I feel that much better about it. But I AM used to it. Mice on the counter. Mice in the laundry room, running the perimiter in groups, as if practicing for the track team. Mice in the stove, peeking out around the burners, climbing in the utensils beside the stove, under the piano in the living room, strolling around upstairs in the office, visiting (today) the new guest bed (thankfully the guests have departed). Under the fridge. In the toy shelf. Basically… no sanctuary remains anywhere in the house. It’s FILLED WITH MICE. We’re clearly bothering them… we’ve messed up their normal supply routes and apparently flushed them out into the open. Why did we do that? Life was much easier when they lived in the basement eating birdseed and we didn’t even know about it.
So the counter attack. … Well, three and a half weeks ago we had a Critter Control professional out here who spread poison around the attic and basement. Ben went out and vacuumed up the birdseed that may have started it all. Then we had a dead mouse in the wall, of course, stenching up the place, but luckily I didn’t have to endure that for long because we went to the hospital for most of that week and also I completely lost my sense of smell to this horrible virus. So, that was a plus! But then we had the house guests (my dad and step-mom here for the weekend), and just a day or two before they came we noticed that the guest room was a mouse super highway. So my dad and I packed this large gaping space between the baseboard and the floor with fiber glass and steel wool and taped the whole thing down with duct tape. Just so as to allow them to sleep without constant mice flowing around them. But this just caused some sort of huge relocation project to the laundry room. I mean– a flood of mice. After messing around with little traps and a low-tech bucket approach (which did drown a mouse today, actually, the mouse just walks up a ramp and falls in and drowns, not the brightest), we went out last night (in desparation) and got five snap traps. Since then we’ve caught… hm…? fifteen mice? Something like that. My dad (bless him!!!) was baiting and unloading traps all evening. Ben emptied three traps before dinner and then set them again and caught three more mice within an hour. Nothing more appetizing than the sound of snapping traps!! I ordered these two repeating mouse traps that will live trap up to fifteen mice at a time, and they will be here tomorrow. Also I called Critter Control again and said “HEEEEELLLLLP!!! Come here now!” They are coming tomorrow. I also just met with a guy who could repair some of the mouse holes in the basement, but not all, because they can get through the tiniest thing and that’s impossible. For $600. Well, I would pay anything if it would actually work.
Lena dog has been working hard to keep this situation in hand. She has actually personally caught and killed two mice, and scared the be-jesus out of many another. The cat Zane Grey has shown little interest, mostly because she spends most of her life upstairs hiding from Lena and from strangers. But last night she did spend some serious time hunting a mouse in the office closet. I don’t think she succeeded, but I appreciated her effort. We realized that this mouse explosion coincides with our first winter since the death of Mr. Cat. We were thinking wistfully– “If only he were here! He would have this all solved before you know it.” ANd then we started to wonder — hm. Maybe the mice were not here all those other winters because Mr. Cat was always on the job.
(We need a new cat, I think. An additional cat. With extra bona fide killing credentials. A truly lethal cat who can’t be trusted with anything smaller than a guinea pig.)
So, it’s a multipronged approach– poison, trapping, relocation, and sealing up the house. And yet, things are getting still worse. We hope that this is something of the last hurrah of the mouse ordeal of 2006. That we’re making a difference, and that SPRING will come soon and help, and that this too shall pass.
Meanwhile– it’s hellish. I’m wearing clogs 24/7. I’m always watching out of the corners of my eyes, and trying to be braced for the next little whiskery nose or little blur of dark fur, and yet still always being startled and appalled when it happens.
Will it get better?? It has to!