Mouse in The Oven

We've had a mouse living in the warming oven at the bottom of my big oven for some time!

I haven't turned on the main oven for about a year to do any large scale baking or roasting as I have a smaller countertop oven that does the job just as well. We found bits of the insulation of the big oven laying on the floor of the warming oven (which is underneath at floor level) ) as well as dry cat food pellets behind the sofa in the living room!

Behind the stove we also found a small potato and an eggshell both of which displayed chew marks.

Minnie, the cat, who loves to jump at anything that moves, especially lizards, hadn't shown the slightest interest in hunting down the little creature, but we did see her sniffing at floor level in unexpected places, so we knew we had an uninvited guest in the house.

We bought a humane trap in the hardware shop, one of those little cages with a spring trap door and after being sure that there wasn't a single crumb of food to be found on the floor or countertops of my kitchen, I laid the trap with bits of dry catfood in a piece of mesh. Waited two nights with no luck. So I added a piece of fresh ham....another two nights with no luck. Then I bought some English cheddar and put a small chunk on the bait hook. Waited one night and then.....VOILA...this morning at 7 am I found our little intruder frightened and inside the cage.

So as soon as it was light I covered the cage with a towel, put him in the trunk of the car and drove him down to where the waste ground begins, where walkers begin the trek to Bollulo Beach, and where the wind gliders jump off the cliff over north Puerto de la Cruz.

I chose a thick bush under which some birds were scampering along the ground, bent down and lifted the trap door.

Little creature hesitated a moment until he realized the door was open.
He then ran under the bush and disappeared.

The moral of the story is .....nothing tastes as good as a mature English cheddar cheese!!!!

But also.....when you trap and release a mouse (or rat) be sure and take him a good distance away.
Two kilometers has been recommended as a safe distance, to avoid them returning to visit you again!

After checking out Google images, I take him to be a HOUSE MOUSE also known as MUS MUSCULUS.


And be careful not to leave dishes of dry food pellets around the house for your dog or cat.
But if you do, and begin to find mounds of dry food in strange places, then you know you are feeding an uninvited pet.

And if you have one of these....or similar.....they are called in Spanish:

mouse.......ratón

rat.............rata

(He looks quite cute doesn't he!)

Bye for now.......¡ hasta la vista!