Mouse in the House

A few nights ago, I went into the kitchen and startled a mouse that had been on the kitchen counter. It scurried away as mice do. The next morning, I found where it had chewed into a package of instant oatmeal. At Lisa's suggestion, I poured some of the rest of the package into the "tin cat" humane mouse trap we have in the kitchen and put the trap near where the box of oatmeal had been.

Last night, I heard clanking sounds coming from the kitchen. When I went into the kitchen and turned on the light, the sounds stopped, but when I picked up the trap I could feel that the mouse was in the box as it skittered around in distress. (The trap has one-way doors; mice can get in but not out.) I walked across the road into the outskirts of the railroad yard and lifted the lid. The terrified little mouse was trying to hide in the door where it had come in, but was betrayed by its tail. When I poked at its tail, it jumped out of the box and ran off into the sagebrush.

I hope the mouse won't make its way back into the house. It's welcome to try and make its way in the railyard, if it can avoid the feral cats and a few raptors in he area. I have no problem with field mice. It's house mice that I don't want.