Other members of my 'family '

[greenpassion]

Loki wasn't as lucky. He lived, bit...I'll have time to write on this when not at work!

---------- Post added at 08:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:34 PM ----------

Ok. Here goes. I came home from dropping my granddaughter off, to find Loki finishing off a box of what I know from remembering the label, rat poison. I freaked. I grabbed my keys, picked him up, and flew out to my car. Of course it had to a Sunday...and the only available veterinarian service was an hour and a half north of me, a place called SAVES. It was starting to sleet, and it was getting late, around 6:30. I made it there in under 50 minutes, frantic. I handed him over, and then spent the next half hour trying to work out the financial part. It was going to run me up to $2,000,and I only had 800 on my care credit card available. The receptionist was able to call and get my credit limit increased to $3,000, and they asked me to go right home and call with the ingredients of the poison, as there are 3 different types that require different treatments. I was a wreck. Crying, shaking. Getting into my car I slipped on the ice. Yes, of course. The sleet was coming down and creating a sheet of ice over everything. This was in March. It was dark. I got on the road, and while crying and talking to a friend on the phone, I realized I was lost! I was supposed to be home asap to call the vet, and here I was going the wrong way on the highway. Traffic was going around 30 miles an hour, and there were accidents all over. Long story short, I had left SAVES at 7:30, and ended up in ST. Albans, Vt, at 11:55pm. I was told by a couple of girls at a gas station that I was 150 or so miles out of my way. All this time I had been driving, gripping the steering wheel, sweating, crawling along at 30 mph, waiting for Ext.91 south....I had to get a hotel, and as I didn't know the area at all, the two girls led me to a hotel, where I paid $150 for a stay of 5 hours. I waited in the room until it was light out, and the sleet had lessened. During that time I called a friend to try to go over and piece together to wrapper to tell me what it was, but she couldn't. Dawn came, I made it home by 8am, 12 hours after leaving Loki there. The vet called and told me he was vomiting blood, and didn't look good. But I was able to call back with the ingredients. He stayed there 3 days, and I have ptsd from sleet and night driving! Sorta kidding about that part.

---------- Post added at 08:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 PM ----------

Oh, I found out the poison was left by a guy who'd done work at my house and thought I should use poison to kill the mice I had. No idea it was there!!!

[Leafmite]

I am so glad that both of you survived that. I can understand the panic.

We keep mice poison in the garage where the neighborhood kitties and our dogs cannot reach it. I am sure the guy wasn't thinking about the dogs when he did it. We have heard that some people put poison outside, around their homes, not thinking of neighborhood cats or dogs.

[greenpassion]

Yeah I am very conflicted about the use of poison to get rid of mice. It's a horrible horrible way to die, but I've had very little luck with traps. I do have one of those zappers that kills them instantly but they are very expensive, and I only have one right now., and a lot more mice than that!

[Leafmite]

Mice are smart creatures, unfortunately. I did the traps for a long time, always getting new types to fool the mice and turning them different ways, using different foods and whatever other tricks I could use. At one time, I had about twenty traps set up in the garage and would catch one mouse a month. Finally, last year, I bought poison.

If you know how they are getting inside, stuff the hole with steel wool (hardware store--used to scrape off paint--the finer the better). They will not chew through it.

[greenpassion]

Yes! They are soo smart! And many people might think I'm crazy, but I think they're cute too. I had them as pets growing up. At one point a wild one must have gotten into the cage, as the mother mouse gave birth to babies that weren't white! They were gray with white bellies, like our deer mice. There were 4, 3 girls and one boy. The girls remained wary and unfriendly, but the male was different. I named him Michael ( no idea why) and I loved him❤. I'd brought him with me to school once in my back pack. So I think this could have something to do with my reluctance to use poisen. I recently had to have my dashboard taken off to get at a mouse nest in my engine area. I was NOT happy about that! My mechanic told me to use bounce dryer sheets- nice hate the perfume! So far, no new nests!👍

[Leafmite]

I am not fond of killing them but they multiply so quickly and can cause so much destruction that I do not feel that there is much choice in the matter. I feel like it is us vs. them. It is too bad, though.

[greenpassion]

Agreed