The Great Vole Adventure...

[ellenmillion]

I was drawing on the couch, minding my own business, when I felt a tickle against my thigh.

I looked down to discover that a VOLE was wiggling in the space between me and the arm of the couch. Being a grown woman of great sensibility, I shrieked like a little girl, and leaped from the couch like it was on fire. The vole, sensibly, dove under the cushion into the recesses of the couch.

This resulted:



Heavily gloved and armed with a flashlight, I probed and prodded the interior of the couch, nearly cornered the terrified rodent several times, and finally gave up and set the live trap baited with peanut butter nearby.

The cat continued to doze.

We sat down to dinner, debating the idea of leaving Norway outside, because if he caught the scent of vole and saw it scrabbling around through the fabric, chances seemed good that we would wake up to shredded couch. We also speculate on how the vole got into the couch, let alone into the house, and decide the likely culprit is the sleeping bag we brought in from the garage that had been laying on the couch for several hours.

The cat snored louder.

Then, suddenly I caught sight of it braving the outside world and coming around the corner of the still-sideways couch. I hissed and pointed and generally flailed, and as quietly as we could, Jake and I got out of our chairs and started stalking the wily beast.



It made basically a beeline for the cat, who slumbered blissfully on, then darted back behind the entertainment credenza.

I put on the heavy gloves and positioned myself at the escape end of the credenza while Jake poked and prodded and hissed and generally flushed it my direction. "This is a terrible idea," I said, but patiently waited. The vole, cautious but not terribly cowed, came my direction.

I waited.

The vole hesitated, just out of Jake's reach. I could have made a grab for it, but it would have sent him hiding if I missed.

The cat snored.

Jake rattled wires.

The vole darted.

I pounced.

Vole safely in my gloved grip, we all cheered.

The vole took a swift air flight out into the woods, and we returned to our dinners.

The cat wheezed on in sleep.

Comments

Aww ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm sorry I couldn't be there to play Knight in Shining Armor Pest Control Service for you.

[kelkyag]

Yup, Velcro is well and truly retired. I'm glad this situation is sufficiently dealt with and done that you can tell a funny story about it already.

[mizkit]

AUGH I WOULD HAVE SCREAMED TOO

[acelightning]

I had a few mice get into my house a couple of years ago. When I noticed that some food that had been left out had visible nibble marks, and I noticed a little blur of motion out of the corner of my eye, I went out and bought a no-kill mousetrap. I baited it with a dab of peanut butter, and caught a mouse. I took the trap down to the drainage canal a couple of blocks away, and released the mouse into the weeds. I went home and re-baited the trap, and proceeded to catch three more mice, one at a time. When nothing took the bait for a week, I figured I was out of mice.

More recently (two years ago, I think) a vole came into my house. It darted between my husband's feet as he was coming in the door, and we both saw it zoom away into another room. At the time, we thought it was another mouse, so I set up the trap again. But the vole was bigger than a mouse; it could get its face up to the peanut butter while its hind legs were sticking out behind the trap door, preventing it from closing. The critter ate all the peanut butter and then ran and hid again. So I got a Havahart in the "vole, chipmunk, and squirrel" size, baited it with more PB, and caught the vole. It also got relocated to the weeds by the canal.

Now the only problem I've got is a population explosion of tiny little ants. But this happens every year around this time, and I know what to do about them.

[sholio]

This cracked me up SO MUCH. Especially the interpretive graphics. At least it ended happily for both you and (one assumes, involuntary air travel aside) the vole.

(I have been on several vole and/or mouse hunts in the house, so I can relate. Someday I should tell the story of Orion and the deer mouse and the Rube Goldberg mouse-trapping devices he built to catch the damn thing when we lived in Illinois. And how, when we released it in a local wildlife refuge, we tipped the mouse out of the container we had it in, and out came the mouse AND A LITTER OF BABY MICE. It was not just a mouse when it was running around in the house, apparently it was a very, very pregnant mouse. And THEN I looked up, off through the woods, and standing there looking at me, not 50 feet away, was the only red fox I ever saw the entire time I lived in Illinois. So much for trying to give the mouse and its family a nice home in the woods.)

[sauergeek]

Velcro has taught you well, and no longer needs to catch voles for you to make sure you're properly fed. Congratulations, you have graduated from kittenhood, and are now certified by Velcro as a fully capable, vole-catching, cat. (Certificate awarded in full cat style by Velcro sleeping through the whole thing.)