Hmmm ... Part Two!

I have a mouse, a rat or another type of rodent using my apartment as a route to parts unknown. EEK!

Three times in the last month, I've seen a brown rodent come in under the door, skuttle across the floor of my livingroom, right along the wall, behind the computer table and the TV table, to the kitchen, up the mop and out an opening in my kitchen wall.

I've taken to shoving two, folded, flattened cardboard boxes up against the door to block the opening. Last night, while I was lying in bed reading, I heard something. I snuck down the stairs, threw my flip flop at the door (the noise was coming from the other side) and turned on the light.

The noise stopped so I opened the door to find nothing. But whatever was out there was trying to chew throught eight layers of folded cardboard! I also had a bag of garbage on the stoop, which was totally ignored.

As a result, I am learning new Spanish words! A mouse is un raton, a rat is una rata and apparently a tlaquache is a big, dumb, ugly rodent from the opossum family. And a trap for one or all of the above is called a ratonera. The one I found tonight was only 65 pesos and big enough to hold a chihuahua!

I don't think he wants food so I don't think a trap or poison is going to work. I can't find the closest "Rent-A-Cat" in the phonebook so I think I'm going to try closing up the gap under the door with some wood. Hopefully, that will keep him busy for a while. I must remember to buy extremely HARD wood ... hmmm! :)