Of Mice and Men from the Council

I wish this could be a more interesting newsflash for you, folks, but the things that live in our attic? Yeah, they’re mice. Not vampires. Not Nigel, the International Man of Mystery Next Door. Not even Shergar, or Lord Lucan, or some other famously missing person/animal, with a massive reward on their head.

Just mice.

This has been confirmed by a nice man from the council, who we finally called in last week, after another night spent listening to the scratching noises coming from directly above our head, and thinking about THAT scene in Paranormal Activity. (With the attic? And the going into the attic? And the DEMON?) . He came to investigate the situation today, and, of course, after waiting all morning for his arrival, TNMFTC arrived when I was in the shower, meaning that Terry had to deal with him alone, while I spent the duration of his visit trapped in the bathroom, which was a preferable option to running the gauntlet of the hall, dressed only in my ratty old dressing gown and a towel turban. (The hatch for the attic is directly outside the bathroom door. It wouldn’t have been pleasant for the poor man.)

I passed the time by re-organising the bathroom cabinet, and very nice it looks too. Rubin, meanwhile, passed the time by pretending that TNMFTC was a dastardly villain, sent to skin us alive and eat our brains for breakfast. I expect TNMFTC was absolutely terrified, which is a shame given that he now has to return every week, until our guests are gone, and by “gone”, I mean… well, you know.

(He put down traps. Apparently this is how our council deals with such things. I’m a bit upset about it, to be honest, because I had pictured the little mice being taken off to live out the rest of their lives in some sunny meadow somewhere. But I was trapped in the bathroom at the time, so the NMFTC got his way. Actually, maybe Rubin was onto something there?)

Anyway, one mystery is solved, and we now know that Nigel is NOT living in our attic. So where IS HE?

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books by Amber Eve
COMMENTS
  • Maybe Nigel put the mice there?! Seriously though, the house I grew up in was very old and every winter we had problems with mice. They are NOISY little beggars, surprising when you think how small they are. We put down those humane mouse traps and my little sister became amazingly good at catching mice just with her bare hands! I hope the problem gets sorted out soon 🙂
    .-= Roisin´s last blog ..God, Ted. D'you remember that fella who was so good at fashion they had to shoot him? =-.

    February 3, 2010
  • Terry could re-train as a mouse juggler…sorted!
    .-= LizSara´s last blog ..This is why… =-.

    February 3, 2010
    • Terry

      REPLY

      Well I can do knives but never tried mice 🙂

      February 4, 2010
  • Madeline

    REPLY

    Gosh, I love these posts! Nigel is still my main suspect 🙂 Keep the news flowing!

    February 3, 2010
  • Well, it's nice to know that it's NOT a demon 🙂 And that it's not Nigel, for that matter. How did the mice get into the attic is the question. B/c if they got there once, their relatives might show up for the funeral of the murdered…!
    .-= Nina´s last blog ..Leaving on a jet plane =-.

    February 3, 2010
    • Terry

      REPLY

      Inspector said they would have got in from somewhere around the bottom of the house, once he is done with the loft they check around the walls to find the problem. If it's not our wall then it's time to break into Nigel's and have a look around 🙂

      February 4, 2010
  • I love the idea of Terry as a mouse juggler, brilliant idea! So where is Nigel? I was sure this post was going to be a post of triumphant discovery… but you seem to be looking a little mousy instead (see what I did there, eh, eh?!).

    Sorry about the pun but I had to get it in somehow…
    .-= Lauren Cooke´s last blog ..Awkward Dreams =-.

    February 3, 2010
    • Terry

      REPLY

      It's ok puns are VERY welcome 🙂

      As for where Nigel is: maybe he is playing hide and squeak? 😉

      February 4, 2010
  • Rachel Bell

    REPLY

    Amber,

    ….might be best to be in the shower again next week when TNMFTC comes back….it's really not my place to tell you how to run your loft, but I am not sure it's a good idea to give names to your mice. It will be harder to to come to terms with Nigel being "gone" now that you have given him a name!

    Rachel (stop shushing me!) Bell

    February 3, 2010
    • Terry

      REPLY

      Nigel is not the name of the mouse, he is our long lost Neighbour (The international man of mystery). How long has he been MIA now Amber? 4 years?

      February 4, 2010
  • lila

    REPLY

    this situation happened to me last week..I was trapped in my bedroom whilst the carpet fitters were fitting the stair carpet, they opened the bed room door whilst working and sung such songs as..gimme a man after midnight, and only the lonely..I was mortfied under my quilt! Good thing was they only took half and hour, so did not have to endure this for long..

    February 3, 2010
    • Terry

      REPLY

      That makes me laugh 🙂 How was the quality of their singing? 😉

      February 4, 2010
      • lila

        REPLY

        They all had a really thick up north accent so had to listen real hard anyway..very cheeky of them, they could have shut the door

        February 4, 2010
  • Rock Hyrax

    REPLY

    If you want, I can recommend an effective humane trap, having tried a couple of designs. (It's amazing how quickly they learn how to get the bait without setting the trap off.)

    February 3, 2010
    • Terry

      REPLY

      As long as they die quickly I am happy. I asked the inspector about this and he said they do. I would rather that then have them trapped in a box for a few days.

      If the mice didn't do so much damage I would have left them there, but about 6 months ago they got into my crunchy nut cornflake box. After that it was war.

      February 4, 2010
      • Rock Hyrax

        REPLY

        Oh, if you've got to the stage where you have to start putting all your food into mouse-proof containers I understand. I had that myself when the landlady downstairs from our flat died and within a couple of months it was like being under siege from the rodents who'd set up base camp in her kitchen…

        (And with the humane traps, you do need to check once or twice a day.)

        February 5, 2010
  • if it was mine I would quizz my kids as to who brought the pet mouse home? One of them would eventually cave after some serious interrogation ! lol
    .-= Roly´s last blog ..From the News Disc 5 =-.

    February 4, 2010
  • So… we had this same problem a few years back. I opted for the humane rat traps, better for the little buggers innit? So up they went.. 2 of them into my attic. A few weeks later and I'm sitting at my kitchen table thinking how quiet it is. Thank god we sorted out the mouse problem etc etc. Then I realise I don't ever remember doing the whole "setting them free" bit. …..Oops. One short visit into the attic later and I had 2 humane traps with two very dead mice inside that died a long and painful death of starvation :/
    .-= arlene´s last blog ..T-I-R-E-D.com =-.

    February 4, 2010
  • Maz aka MallyMon

    REPLY

    Oh poor little mice….! They were having such a lovely time but now

    February 4, 2010
    • Terry

      REPLY

      Well it's pretty dark and cold in the loft, can't be all that great to be honest. I am sure they are bored of eating Amber's stored clothes by now anyway.

      February 4, 2010
  • Steph

    REPLY

    Glad it was only mice and not something sinister 😛 We had mice at our old place and every once in a while I had to stand on my bed at 3AM and whack the ceiling with a slipper whilst shouting 'PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING DOWN HERE!' I was probably louder than the mice were…

    February 4, 2010
  • Jennifer

    REPLY

    I hope the council has to enter Nigel's place – and that you can be there too, maybe as a witness that they are not stealing anything of his, you'll think of some excuse – and then you can tell us if you get any clues about him from his home's contents, etc.

    Please update on that. I Love the Nigel Mystery!

    February 6, 2010
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