The Unwanted Roommate

I pride myself in being fairly low-maintenance. For the past twenty months, I've lived in a basement that could hardly be considered an apartment. Over the course of time, I've shared this basement with a total of seven housemates and numerous guests. But there are a few particular guests that were not invited, and I hope do not return.

My toilet has captured and killed three mice since I've lived here. Sticky traps have caught two more. A few weeks ago, I walked into my office after lunch break to find a plastic bag on my computer. A dead mouse was inside. (I screamed when I had seen the live version of that mouse running around earlier... oh, cruel office jokes.) Unfortunately, there have been several more mice around the home, but it seemed like they all eventually found their way back outside. In fact, after seeing a mouse run around in August, there has been no evidence of mice since. That is, until a few days ago.

While preparing lunch on Tuesday, I found two Jolly Ranchers on my hot pad. That was odd, since I kept the candy in the next drawer over. Then I realized that the pieces of candy had the wrappers torn off and displayed little teeth marks. Even worse, I noticed that my small rubber spatula had been completely chewed up! (Why was it so appealing? It was just clean rubber!) I took everything in that drawer to the camp kitchen so that I could sanitize it in the dishwasher. (I left the chewed-up spatula out; I'm never using that again!) And all of my food that didn't have a tight seal is being quarantined in a fridge or freezer.

Yesterday morning, around 6 am, I was enjoying my sleep when I heard the sound of rattling plastic. Thinking it was just part of my dream, I continued to sleep. When I heard it again, I realized that a small, annoying creature found a plastic object- right beside my bed! It ran away at the sound of my movement, and I didn't see it again.... until nighttime.

I was once again in bed (but this time I was awake with all the lights on), and I thought I saw something small and gray run between the couch and the desk. I saw it a few more times running around that area, which explains why I was unable to sleep until after midnight. I opened the lid of my toilet and dropped a few Jolly Ranchers in, hoping to attract it into the watery grave. I also slathered some mint toothpaste on my face. (Apparently the smell of mint is too strong for them, and I couldn't think of any other way to protect myself other than wearing toothpaste!) Although I did not trap him, fortunately I haven't seen my unwanted roommate at all this morning...yet.