Today marks the seventh mouse caught in my jeep. I have been having a problem with the fiends all summer.
Tally: jeep- 7
basement- 8

At first it was very stressful. It all started while I was driving into work at 7:40 am, the sun waking behind me, and something caught the corner of my eye. I focused my attention onto the road, assuming it was maybe the light reflecting from my keys onto the passenger side floor, but something wasn't right. The time I was certain it was not my keys I looked down to spot a mouse running back and forth on the front passenger side.
\"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!\"
*brakes* *signal light* *swerve* *park* *all amidst panic*

"shit, god, crap, ugh..." I ran to the passenger door. The mouse, startled by my shreak I assumed, made one last dash from under the seat, looked me in the eye, and scampered its furry little body through a small opening under the glove compartment, leading to the engine.
I went to the back of the jeep to fetch a bag that I might have been able to capture and dispose it with, but it was too late. I called home, explained the situation to my father with a shaken voice only to get "What do you want me to do about it? We'll deal with it when you get home." *click*

I gunned it at a buck-thirty to work, my knees up by the stearing wheel in fear that the little bugger would climb up my pant leg. Oh ya, I called the bakery (work) to tell them I'd be late. Astonishingly I wasn't.
That night I set two traps in the front passenger side. I checked them at approximately 11:00pm; one caught, but got away (stupid Langley...). Checked next morning before going in for work; two down. Next morning, two more. next week, two more...

Around the fourth buggar my friend came over to watch a movie in my basement. Disney's "Hercules" I believe... anyway, all was going fine untill I saw a shadow race across the rug, under the table, and UP THE BRICK WOODSTOVE WALL into a teensy tiny space between the woodstove pipe and the wall. I screamed bloody murder when it scaled the wall...

So we caught that one the next morning, and that night one's beady brown eyes stared into mine in the laundry room among some dryer lint, retreating to the garbage bag that covered the un-finished wall. Not Fun.

So long and short 7 for the jeep, 8 for the basement. (actually, I think it may even be 9 because they caught another one while I was away. I'm mot sure if i recorded it or not...)
Going out was a pain cause I was so paranoid all of the time but now I'm at the point of immunity where I joke about it. Joke about nests on the engine, baby mice inside, etc.

I begged my dad for a cat but he said "no". I was very close to going to his hired-man's place to sneak one but mom said he would go Ape Shit @_@ Now even mom is considering it...

What stressed me a great deal was "Why MY vehicle? Why not mom's or dad's? Or any of the old farm equipment?" A number of perfectly logical reasons came up: I parked my jeep in the quonset and then by woodpiles, my jeep is older (18 years old), easier to get into...
but I only ever ate in it once!!!
And I never keep garbage in it!!!
Why did they invade MY privacy?
Why couldn't they find their own place to crash?
There are any number of fields,
wholes in the ground,
tarps, woodpiles...

And I've sunk to the pitiful conclusion:
that these mamals just want someplace warm to rest.
Someplace dry n' cozy. Somewhere they need not run from.
I guess my jeep (the place I take my buds cruising in)
and my basement (the place where we all open up) seemed rather welcoming (unfortunately...).

(but my friends don't exactly get stuck in mouse traps).

Sooooooo......if there are any mice out there, stay away from my jeep and house. I have no mercy.
PS. weather has been rainy all summer, hence no place dry