And then there were two...

So my home-made live mouse trap has still not caught my intruder.  I'm pretty convinced that it doesn't spend all of it's time here.  Once I catch sight of it and see it; for example when I pulled out the bottom drawer and found it in the drawer, I don't see it again for a few days.

Once again I was sitting at my computer when I saw the blur of grey by the bird cage.  Thinking I could catch this mouse by hand into a plastic container I went after it.  I know where it hides, the bottom drawer.  I yanked open the drawer...

Even though I'm not scared of mice, when I saw this:

I admit, I screamed like a little girl.  Now if someone had been recording what happened next I may have been able to win on America's Funniest Videos.  As I screamed and tried to get my mind functioning again, the two mice sprung out of the drawer.  One leapt contorting it's body as it did so, hit the floor running and disappeared around the corner of the door towards my living room.  The other leapt straight up, contorting it's body as well, hit the ground upside-down, then ran in the opposite direction with me following right behind.  It hit the wall under my radiator like a car hitting a wall.  Regained it's footing and ran under my bookshelves.  Now I'm ripping stuff away from the bottom of the bookshelves looking for it.

So now I know there are two mice in my flat (at least some of the time).  Now the chance of having more appear has increased considerably.  Now it's war.

I made a second live trap, it's much simpler than the first.  It's a toilet paper tube folded flat on one side which hangs off a ledge, with peanut butter on the hanging edge.  The idea is that the mouse enters the tube to get the bait and the weight of the mouse tips the mouse off the ledge into a waiting bucket.

I have also admitted partial defeat to this wise, intelligent Scottish mice.  I went and bought a live mouse trap as well.  All are set and I wait to see what's there when I get home tonight.