Tuesday... A No Breakfast sort of Morning

This morning as I arrived in the office, several people were gathered around a box sitting in front of a credenza. Of course I was curious. I mean.. this was Tuesday... staff meeting day... and sometimes breakfast treats are available.

By the time I had unlocked my office door and dropped off all the stuff I seem to cart to and fro work, I set off to see what sort of breakfast treats were waiting for me.

However, no one was gathered around. And I didn't see any treats either. I asked one of my coworkers what was going on with the large crowd gathered around the box. She proceeded to tell me that a mouse had been captured on a glue trap that was against the baseboard and that the mouse had moved the glue trap from the baseboard to the front of the credenza with is probably at least 15 inches. She said she called maintenance around 7:00 a.m... but no one had responded... but that the mouse was dead.

I sort of moved the box and dang... the mouse was still alive and looked up at me. His left back leg was dislocated and pulled behind him. I mean.. the agony this little creature was enduring is beyond belief. Spots of dried blood were all along the glue strip. At this point, I felt it was inhumane for the mouse to be kept in this position... and I was afraid it would finally free itself from the glue trap and crawl off somewhere to die. I asked someone for a bag... and pick up the glue trap and place it inside the bag. Thankfully at this point the maintenance man arrived. I just hope the mouse isn't still alive, inside a bag, attached to a glue trap, inside a trash dumpster.

I work in the tallest building in Dayton Ohio. And it's not like this building is old and decrepit and gross. It's a fairly decent building. I've worked in this building since 1981... and this is the first time I've been aware of a mouse situation. And dang... those mice have been heavy on the 2nd and 3rd floor.... but we've been lucky on the higher levels. But several weeks ago, they discovered our floor. And the mice went into drawers and overheads... chewing into box of oatmeal breakfast mix, teabags, mints, and even chewed up a phone book (that has to be a mother building a nest).

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The large black building to the left is where I work.

I realize the property owners are trying to get rid of the mouse situation, and mice can bring disease, etc... but honestly... glue traps aren't doing the trick. Although I don't like cats... I'm thinking about starting a "mouse killing business" and training cats to patrol office buildings on the weekends. I can just see them in their gray little guard outfits, roaming free range on certain designated floors, ridding the Tower of the mice. Surely death by a cat's bite at the base of the neck beats the much slower and painful death by glue trap.

I didn't have my camera... but found this on the internet. At least this mouse looks like all its limbs were in there original location.

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So.. no breakfast treats this morning. God... it's only Tuesday.

Comments

Melissa said…
I cannot believe a company as large as yours does not use mousetraps and NOT glue boards. Those are the most inhumane item to sell to trap rodents. I don't care if it was a mouse, it has feelings too (a lot of people think animals do not have feelings) and it endured a terrible death.

Do you have a suggestion idea program at your work? I would suggest NOT using freaking glue strips and at least setting up mouse traps, that death would be much quicker.

What about the Orkin man? Our Orkin man stops by every month to check our place out.
Melinda said…
WOW.......THAT IS HORRIBLE.......I TOO CANNOT IMAGINE ANYONE ESPECIALLY A LARGER COMPANY....DECIDING TO USE GLUE STRIPS TO CATCH ANYTHING....I MEAN THEN YOU USUALLY HAVE TO DEAL WITH A LIVE ANIMAL.....I DON'T GET IT....BUT EVEN IF THERE HAD BEEN TREATS FOR BREAKFAST...THIS WOULD HAVE CURBED MY APPETITE!
Patty said…
I would imagine the treats is what caused the mouse situation. At MVCTC, we were not allowed to leave any food outside a container. Any bags of food had to be stored in something that wouldn't attract a mouse. Glue strips should be outlawed. Cats sound like a good idea, they work cheap, don't need more than a litter box they can get to and some water, that way being hungry they will look for the mice. But traps sound good to me. Melissa is really good at sitting those now. And since they were so cheap, she didn't bother removing the dead mouse, she threw the whole thing away. She had a lot of mice when she lived out in that old drafty country farm house.

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