more on the mice

The ongoing turf war between the humans and the mice continues. We have been catching and disposing of a mouse a day over recent times. Yesterday however, the mice had a minor victory. In a sleepy (pre-cup of tea) attempt to empty the trap into a plastic bag I failed to notice that the mouse, in fact, was still alert (and alarmed!) and rather than having a stiffening mouse carcass drop into the bag for disposal, the mouse took a flying leap from the trap when it opened, bounced on the floor, ran across my leg and scarpered under the stove. Yuk, yuk, yuk! Mouse (1) Me (0)
This morning, however, close(r) examination revealed one dead mouse in the trap. BUT it was not the same mouse. Now there is a scarred mouse at large with knowledge/experience and (possibly) a desire to wreak vengeance upon the human oppressors (or at least to chew really big holes in my packets of dried goods.)
Justine and I have decided to up the ante in our ‘weapons of mouse destruction’ (an illustrative phrase from a recent article in The Age). An attempt to purchase more mouse traps at the supermarket was thwarted on the weekend. There were no traps in evidence but three people (including Justine) were staring blankly at the space on the shelf allocated to mouse traps. This made us feel slightly better in that it is now clear that the mouse issue is suburb wide and NOT a result of slatternly housekeeping on our part.
Today I will venture down to the Collingwood supermarket in an effort to out-distance the Footscray mouse infestation and consolidate our anti-mouse arsenal with a few extra traps.

Also from the animal kingdom: Standing at the counter of Footscray train station this morning waiting to purchase a ticket we hear over the loudspeaker -“Someone please shoo that dog out of the waiting area. It is accosting two females.” ?????