Today’s surprise: mice.

I had noticed before that a bag of sunflower seeds had been chewed up in one corner, but, not seeing any other danger signs, assumed that that was that. Maybe a mouse got in, ate some of it, and then left again.

As I was moving the boxes around and looking inside to see what’s what, I discovered that the mice had gotten into all sorts of places. Chewed things, made nests in boxes with clothes, built caches of sunflower seeds. I had to go through every single box to remove the sunflower seeds and mouse poop, and the flakes of paper and plastic and fabric that they’d used to build nests. Plus try to save what could be saved by washing and wiping off, and throw out that which was too badly chewed or too smelly.

This was totally not what I had planned for my vacation.

In two boxes, I was met by live mice when I opened the box. I don’t know who was more surprised, me or the mice.

Nysse, good boy that he is, went into instant hunting mode. He quickly caught at least two of the mice that were loose in the basement, and one that I managed to dump outside. Then he kept guard and patrolled the basement for the rest of the evening. I’ll be bringing him back here daily to keep at it.

I didn’t want to take a break at this stage. Better to clear out all their hiding places and food caches as soon as possible, so that I don’t miss anything. I worked until close to midnight.