Success Manifesto

I write now with cutting-edge news on the Mouse in the House saga (hopefully, the final part of a trilogy):

1. Mouse in the House
   
2. Mouse in the House Update #2

Apparently, there is a whole mouse problem on our street. So the grand daughter of my land lord came home with a plethora of mouse traps one day. She came with poison, something that had a smell that mice don't like, and a trap that is very sticky and makes it so the mouse can't get away. She made me promise to put out the traps, even after I said I didn't want to. So I took them to please her and haven't done anything with them. A few days later, I heard that she had caught two mice and so I thought "The Mouse in the House" saga was over....until now!

Here are some startling observations/thoughts:

1. Tonight, I've been hearing the thrashing a plastic bag in the cabinet. Sheena's been asleep and I've sort of just been ignoring it.
   
2. While I was hearing these sounds, I suddenly saw a mouse appear four feet away from me, on the other side of the room from where the sounds were coming. Upon seeing it, I immediately jumped in the air completely shocked. The mouse did something similar and ran back to where it came from. With this observation I realized that withstanding the possiblity that it rustled the plastic bag and went 20-feet across the room wihout me seeing it in less than 5 seconds, there are at least two mice. However, I'm not ruling out the possiblity of the one mouse bag rustling / running across the room combo. I've seen movies where individuals try to make noise from various locations at the same time so that their prey thinks that it is surrounded or at least outnumbered.
   
3. A few minutes later the mouse reappeared. This time I was a combination of shocked, angry, and quite frankly frightened. However, this time anger was the strongest emotion. Sheena and I could have easily put out the traps, but we decided not too. At this point, I feel like the mouse or mice are taking advantage of us. I mean, come on!!
   
4. Since the incident, I've been sitting with my feet resting on another chair for fear of the mouse running up to my feet, biting them and then running up my leg and under my clothes. Yes, I know this scenario may be unrealistic, but (a) You can never be too sure and (b) I underestimated it once, and I don't want to again. The pain in my back has been increasing with this un-ergonomic posture over the past few minutes, but I'm sure the mouse biting scenario would be more painful.
   
5. If there are, in fact, two mice, are they related (ie - brother/sister, mother/son)? If so, are there other siblings?
   
6. How did the mice get to the third floor? Did they take the stairs? Climb up a pipe?
   
7. The obvious question I've been asking myself for the past few minutes is, "What do I do now?" Some possiblities that went through my mind include:
   1. Buying a have-a-heart trap.
      
   2. Putting out a normal trap, but I'm still against that.
      
   3. Putting away all food. However, we've already done this.
      
   4. Not doing anything tonight and then hoping that Sheena discovers the problem and fixes it before I wake up tomorrow morning.
      
   5. Accept the new living situation

Update (5 minutes later): I think a lot of conflicts arise out of misunderstanding. If the two sides could communicate with each other and see how the other side sees the world, the conflicts would often be dematerialized. Unfortunately, I realized that the mice and I coming to an understanding is impossible. We live in completely different worlds - the mice in our cabinets and me in front of the computer, on the bed, on the subway, or at school. How can we ever hope to understand each other, save getting consulting from Sonya, Animal Planet's pet psychic.

On a more serious note, I do think it's sad the evil what happens to animals at
the hands of humans. I can do certain things like adopt-a-pet, wear non-animal-based products, etc., but just by living in our system, I'm probably doing more damage. In this way, I feel sort of helpless and hypocritical. Is it really possibly to help the mouse? Is it worth my time? Will it make a difference? Although, I talk about the mouse, the mouse could be a sweat shop in asia producing appareal, child slaves in Africa producing Hershey's chocolate, companies destroying rain forests to create paper-baased products, electrical equipment being powered ultimately by polluting fossil fuels. What are we to do?

On another serious side note, I found myself wanting to delete my serious thoughts in the last paragraph for fear that people would think I'm too animal-friendly or to environmentally-friendly. It seems so silly that being those things could be consdered 'uncool'.

Anyway, as Yoda would say it, "Off to bed, I am".