So having laid the traps last night early in the evening and blocking the entrance beneath the sink I was hoping to have fully sealed everything and to see no mouse droppings. Instead this morning I found what I take to be incontravertible evidence that the mice have reproduced and now include a population of both a large mouse with large chocolate jimmy/sprinkle sized poops and a smaller mouse with poppy seed sized poops. Neither the big mouse or the baby bothered to check out the inside of the mouse trap to eat some yummy peanut butter that I had put inside. I also started dreaming of the better mouse trap including fanciful visions with a camera tracking system to watch the mouse piped into my computer in the bedroom, a net that would pull up suddenly when weight or motion sensors were activated, or just a giant bell jar that would be dropped from above. While all of these are somewhat impractical I may have to resort to them at some point. But since I needed to feel like I was making progress while waiting for the first round of traps to take effect I considered poisoning the mouse, then figured I would probably accidentally poison the dog who is dumber than a mouse or my newborn baby when she is born. I also recieved some tips from a local blog reading helper who suggested a fancy trap that lights-up when the mouse walks in and zaps them. I have to deal with my guilt meter internally about the death sentence for the mouse if I could just drive them a few miles down the road but the cat is probably a death sentence for the mouse too, it just seems more natural that way.

So I posted the following onto craigslist Boston in search of a cat that might be interested in hunting on my turf:

Free cat sitting in Brookline (Brookline)
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Reply to: anon-104785383@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-10-17, 6:14PM EDT

My wife and I are about to have a baby in late October and discovered that we have a mouse that has moved into our kitchen. We aren't ready to take on the lifetime responsibility of a cat to help with the mouse scaring duties but we have had a cat living the in the apartment in the past. If you are interested we would be happy to give your cat a home for a few weeks or a month while you are away. In exchange they will police the kitchen for the mouse and obtain a loving family atmosphere from my wife and I as we are home full time while you are gone.