NESTING (PART THREE)

Don't start! I can hear your groans from here. I too thought I had finished with this little tale after the denouement in"Nesting (Part two)" in which I revealed that the fidgety little birds nesting in my garage roof space turned out to have been mice (two nests) who had long gone without paying their bill.

However, something odd has occurred without knowledge of which, your life will be a little duller. Furthermore, as you will shortly discover, there will almost certainly need to be a "Nesting (Part Four)". Please curb your unseemly enthusiasm.

On news of the evidence of mice, my wife having smartly withdrawn her offer of help, it was left to me to deal with the situation. I began by taking all the old floor carpet to the dump (no more Mr. Nice Guy) and was then able to drag furniture out of the way so that every inch of the floor could be mopped with neat bleach.

The garage is still warm and dry but a little less cosy than hitherto. Just in case the little chaps decide to check back in to Mouse Hilton, I planned to have a little surprise waiting in the form of mousetraps. Being me, this required a certain amount of research and whilst dining with friends, I brought up the subject of my mouse problem which undoubtedly helped with everyone's appetite.

As country dwellers they were experienced in this field... and many other meadows - (sorry - irresistible) and first told me to use peanut butter as bait. They then informed me about hi-tech electronic mousetraps which were more humane than the spring version but cost over 10 times the price. My host went to fetch one to show me which turned out to come complete with dead mouse. I mentally reviewed the elements of the meal we had just eaten.

In the end, I decided to take the cheaper, heartless route and three loaded mouse traps were strategically placed in my garage which I then proceeded to check almost daily. Which brings us to the reason for this piece of writing. Yesterday when I checked the traps, one was missing! Gone without trace. I moved furniture to check underneath and behind it but nothing. Presumably there exists a damaged mouse with mouse trap attached and since I can't believe that there is a hole big enough for this strange creature to escape, it must be there somewhere - surely? Watch this space...