Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

I like to think of myself as a kind and caring individual. Not exactly a pet lover, but don't despise pets either. I recently adopted my aunt's cat because I worried that my children would forever have a fear of pets if I never exposed them to pets.

You see, until recently, the sight of a dog threw each of my four little ones into a panic that would make one believe they were being abducted. Shrill screams and utter fear would lead one to believe that the dog was attacking one of my children. Never been bitten, never been attacked, but never-the-less, my children feared pets.

So I have digressed from my original story...

Forget dogs. Let's talk about rodents. A level on the animal pyramid (if there was such a thing) that I believe should be extinct. That's right-- extinct just like dinosaurs, just like woolly mammoths, just like all the other animals that no longer exist on our earth.

I DESPISE RODENTS!!! PERIOD!!!

They make feel dirty, violated, and down-right disgusting. Which is why I about lost my mind when I realized I had- what I thought was- A, singular, One, uno mice living in my car.

What the heck, it's the perfect place for a mice to grow fat and happy. I'm sure they feasted on goldfish, peanut butter and crackers, cheese-its, cheetohs, and whatever else my little angels left lying around in our van. And might I add, either mice are not prone to sweet-tooths, or they aren't into sticky goods, because they never consumed the fruit snacks that were stuck to the various parts of the car.

If anything, I learned a few things about mice through this whole experience. I've come to the conclusion that just because mice don't eat fruit snacks, it doesn't mean they are completely picky about what they eat. I say this because a few of their favorite snacks are my passenger-side-rear seatbelt, Annie's carseat cushion, and my built in carseats that are in the middle row. Missing pieces in all the above mentioned is what alerted me to the fact that there was even a rodent problem at all.

So my darling husband sets a trap and BAMB-O, within minutes, what he says is the one an only mouse living in my car, is gone. FOR GOOD! He assures me that he's taken care of the problem and I can feel comfortable in my car again.

He was wrong. Mouse droppings proved that the problem WAS NOT solved.

A couple of days later, we heard the snap of the trap from our bedroom window. Mouse number two. DEAD. GONE.

Now he assured me the problem was REALLY solved.

But, feeling uneasy about his conclusion, I asked him to set a third trap. Which he gladly set, feeling confident that this time he would prove me wrong.

WRONG!!! Pesky mouse number three was caught in the trap. ALIVE AND KICKING. That nasty mouse dragged that trap like a ball and chain, all the way from the back seat to the front. I prepared a bucket of water to drown the mouse and kill him for good. My gentle hearted husband puts him in the water, only to pull him out again, letting him go on the mountain side behind our house. He didn't have the heart to do away with the rodent that is helping to destroy my van.

BUT-- at least now the problem was solved. No more mice could possibly be living in that van!!!!

Wrong yet again. Mouse number four was just caught. Mouse number four was also ALIVE. And mouse number four-- WAS NOT GOING TO LIVE.

Because I won't touch a rodent with a hundred foot pole, and because my husband has that gentle-spirited thing going on, neither of us would agree to "finish off" the rodent.

So, being that it was trash day, my husband carried him down to the street and disposed of him in the most humane way he knew how....into the big, gray trash bin that would ultimately carry him to rodent heaven....the dump!!!

But this didn't happen until Angel, Isaac, Bella, & Annie investigated the situation and gave their opinion of what should happen to this mouse. And let me just say that maybe they have overcome their fear of pets, because their solutions were much more humane than any I could come up with!