Homing Mice

Regarding Mat Coward’s Mythchaser question about mice returning to their point of origin [ FT395:25]: about 20 years ago, I was staying at my mother-in-law’s house when I was woken just after midnight by a mouse in my bedroom. I couldn’t go back to sleep with it scratching around, but I didn’t want to chase it out of the door, as that would just be passing the problem on to someone else, so I decided to try and catch it. A humane trap from the kitchen was a complete failure, as was tempting it into the middle of the room with nuts and trying to drop a cardboard box over it. Eventually, after hours of comedic attempts at stalking, I managed to catch it in a blanket. My original plan had been to get into the car, drive at least couple of miles so it wouldn’t find its way back, and then release it. However, it was now three in the morning and frankly, I was knackered so I decided to just shake the blanket out of the window and worry about it later. I saw the mouse fly through the air and I’m pretty sure it would have survived the fall – I’ve seen hamsters fall from similar heights without damage – and it would have had a soft landing on the lawn. Next morning there was no sign of a mouse corpse on the grass.

A couple of weeks later I was sleeping in the same bedroom when I was very rudely awakened by a mouse sinking its teeth into my toe. I sat up with a yell and was just in time to see the culprit running out of the open bedroom door. Was this the same mouse back for revenge? I think it probably was. I’m sure I heard it laughing as it ran off.

Lisa Gledhill

Goring, Oxfordshire