Only me.

I swear to God, some things that happen in my life don't happen to other people. They really don't.

The latest occurrence of this was yesterday and involves small, furry rodents and my car.

A couple of weeks ago, I drug out the lawnmower to mow the backyard. When I did that, out ran a little mouse who had built a nest under my lawnmower in the garage. "Hmmm," I thought. "I should do something about that." But I was focused on mowing, so that was a chore for another day.

I guess that day has arrived. Because yesterday, I picked up the windowshade that was in the foot/leg area of my front passenger seat, and under the window shade, in the floor, was the little trash bag I keep there. It was in tatters. Little shredded pieces of plastic were all over the floor where Mr. Mouse had tried to get at some food that I'd thrown into the trash bag.

Let me reiterate this: the mouse had somehow gotten in my CAR (which I do, in fact, park in my garage) and was hanging out - eating, sleeping, possibly pooping or whatever a mouse does when hanging out in your car. I just pray he hasn't been gnawing wires and such.

Does this happen to other people? Do other people get MICE in their car??? I'm not foul. I don't normally have food in my car. I'd bought a little package of Nibs on the way home from Houston on Sunday, and they were all crystallized and nasty, so I tossed the package in the trash and just hadn't gotten around to throwing out the trash bag. It had only been in there a few days - a closed container of melted ice cream. That's all. Nothing gross! It wasn't like meat or something. And it wasn't just loose in the trash or in the car. I know people with kids who find random french fries, skittles and all sorts of stuff in their cars. And they don't get mice!!

So, now I've got to go get a trap. I hate the thought of this. I hate the thought of a painful, brutal death to a little furry guy just tryin' to live his little rodent life. But he's going to gnaw a cable or a wire or something on my car, and I'm going to end up stranded on the road. Or he'll do that to an extension cord in the garage, and I'll end up electrocuted. Or he'll give me the plague or something. It's just not a good living arrangement.

So, he has to go. And I'll probably cry when I find him all dead in a horrible way. I suppose I could try to get my cat to take care of the problem for me. But she's likely to just play with it and then come inside to eat, rather than actually killing it, and then if I kill it, she'll blame me for killing her new friend/toy, so that's no good.

So, there we are. I guess I'll get a trap today and put it in my car tonight. I don't know that Mr. Mouse is actually still in the car. Probably he's just in the garage. He probably got through to the Nibs and said, "These things are all crystallized and nasty. I'm going back under the lawnmower." But I have to make sure I'm getting whoever is coming into the car, so that's where the trap will go. Wish me luck that The End is not too graphic.