Squeakers

Okay, lemme tell you this story I told a friend of mine about why I hadn't had much sleep this week.

The other night, I had fallen asleep on the couch. I often do this when I'm either just really tired and pass out while watching TV, if it'sreally hot and humid, or if I wash clothes and sheets and either I pile all my clean clothes on my bed or I just don't make my bed because I've waited until 8 PM to start washing sheets.

Anyway, the other night, I'm on the couch drifting off to Zzzztown. Then something I hear jolts awake. And I mean wide awake. I sat perfectly still, holding my breath.

So I'm sitting there, holding my breath, trying not to move so my joints don't pop, listening for some kind of sound… and then I hear it 😳

Gnawing and...

Biting and...

Tiny footsteps and...

SQUEAKING!!!

I'm sure my eyes grew as wide as saucers as I'm still sitting perfectly still, as quiet as can be. The only sound I hear from my body is my heartbeat pounding in my chest.

I was trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from but I couldn't tell whether it was in the kitchen, in the dining room, or *gasp* behind the couch. MY couch.

So I'm still sitting there, stoic--like a statue, not moving. And then I see it out the corner of my eye..

A LITTLE GREY MOUSE.

And I guess it thought everyone had gone upstairs because it walked around the leg of the coffee table and HEADED RIGHT FOR ME.

Well, that stoic statue stuff crumbled right away and I jumped and screamed and stood on the couch.

The mouse took off running back from where it came. And sure, okay. Little mice can be… kind of cute. But not really so much when they're running around your house.

A little background: I live in an almost 90-year-old house. On a hill. Shifting and settling ground can cause all kinds of small cracks and holes that these little creatures can squeeze their bodies through. Every couple of years they find their way in.

Anyway, I went around and turned on all the lights on the first floor--kitchen, bathroom, dining room, both lights in the living room, the hallway--so that it would think (if they think at all) that everyone had come back downstairs. I stomped my foot and cleared my throat obnoxiously loud so it would feel the vibrations and hear that I was there.

That worked for maybe 10 minutes max.

I think I "slept" for 5 minutes the whole night. Every time I drifted, I heard gnawing. Or I heard squeaks. Or tiny footsteps. Freaked me out!

The next day I was soooo tired. And yes, too tired to clear off and make my bed. But I wasn't sleeping on the couch another night so I ended up sleeping in the bedroom on the third floor that I haven't slept in in like 30 years.

Why 30 years? Okay, that is definitely a more deeper story for another time, but for now I'll say I had a bad experience in that room the last time I slept in there. But, again, my room was a mess and I was way too tired to clear off my bed.

So I had to sleep in this room I had barely stepped foot in for the last 30 years…

And yes, I slept with the light on.

So the first night I think I slept almost as much as I did on the couch when I heard the mouse. I kept waking up to make sure what affected me all those years ago wasn't coming back around for a second go.

But the consecutive nights, I kind of got a little bit more sleep.

There are traps set around the first floor and I haven't really heard anything in a couple days, but a call to the exterminator has been made! (I wonder if they can get rid of all the spiders while they're at it? 🥴)

And I'll be making an appointment with the Humane Society to look at adopting a couple cats! 😺😺

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