Who'd have a cat? Lucy (my black, 8 year old moggie) brought in a mouse the other day. As we chased her round the house, trying to get her to take it back outside, she dropped it! It quickly disappeared, never to be seen again (so we thought).
For a few days, she seemed rather interested in the piano ...... I tried to ignore it, but then both myself and my daughter heard notes being played when no-one was anywhere near it. :( Finally forcing myself to investigate, I took the lid off to be met by a furry nose and clear evidence that a mouse was alive and well - indeed thriving - inside the piano!
It has made a nice nest for itself out of bits of paper and fluff it's dragged in. I guess it comes out to feed from Lucy's bowl (conveniently placed there for her use) during the night while Lucy is asleep on our bed.
I cleared away some droppings, but I can't get access to the inside of the piano to get it out - and even if I could, I would have to make sure I could catch it, not have it once more running loose around the house. It's not going to escape voluntarily, as there isn't a way out unless I leave an outside door open (obviously not sensible).
Any ideas would be gratefully appreciated! Leaving poison down is out of the question as Lucy could end up eating it (not to mention the neighbourhood cats who come in through the catflap) and in any case I feel rather sorry for this little creature, having already escaped the clutches of a cat, I feel it deserves a life!
To accompany this article is an appropriate video, courtesy of a long forgotten AIM contact, and particularly recommended by Tolien from #adsl :)
If you enjoyed this video, you might like to watch more by the same animator! :)
20th August 2004
Update 4.9.04
I came home from Morrisons today to find that Rosie had called in and taken the piano apart. She removed every last one of the 88 keys and as many other removable parts as possible in an attempt to dislodge the mouse.
It's been living a very comfortable life .... made a warm nest out of fluff and paper and any other bits and pieces it could drag inside, and a pile of Lucy's favourite Iams were stocked up for food. When we caught a glimpse of it, I couldn't believe how it had grown from the baby we first saw Lucy bring in!
We got the mouse out of the piano and cleaned up .... but failed to catch the mouse. After a couple of hours or so, it disappeared and we had to give up. I'd like to think it went out of the front door we had open ready, but it could just as easily have run upstairs.
I think my plan to acquire a humane trap is best - but we don't even know for sure the mouse is still around so I think it had better go on hold.
Actually scrap that last comment! Lucy has just found the mouse under the sofa and chased it to the piano again :/ So it's back to square one and I must order a humane trap!
Update 11.9.04
Unfortunately, my efforts to rescue this mouse and release it unharmed look like they might have failed. At around 5 am this morning (well, technically yesterday morning as it's now nearly 1 am), Lucy came into the bedroom and proudly presented us with a very large, dead mouse (or rat)! Half asleep, I got the job of getting up and putting it in the dustbin. Of course it might have been another mouse, but the chances are this one had come out from under the piano to get some food, and Lucy happened to be waiting. If only the humane trap had been big enough to entice the poor creature inside!
Ah well .... it solves a problem. Now I just need to clean the piano again, make sure the mouse has actually gone, and arrange for the piano tuner to fix the key we couldn't fit back in.
The joys of owning a cat!
Update 19.9.04
Well, there's nothing now living in the piano and from what I've learned, this was more likely a rat than a mouse. The piano's been cleaned of the enormous droppings it left and as soon as I can get it tuned/repaired, it'll be playable again.
