We have been having a rodent problem as of late. Not mice, thankfully. But moles. Or maybe they’re voles. Either way, they are rodents and they don’t belong in my house!
It all started on Tuesday. I was sitting at the table, writing a letter when Malachi began to scream terribly. I could tell he was very frightened, but it began so suddenly that I was at a loss of what was wrong. Once he sat on the chair next to me, looked under the table and began to scream again, I looked for myself and there it was. The little no-name thing was creeping around the corner of the counter, obviously looking for some food (with 5 messy children who like to eat, I can’t imagine why it thought there was some food on the floor! I mean, ya’ll know I just love to walk around with a broom glued to my hand, right?).
So I got the trusty sticky trap down from the fridge (left over from a few years ago when we had the first rodent “visitor” or two), set it under the counter and sat back down. No problem. Or so I thought. We have since then caught 5 moles/voles and almost caught the 6th one, but it got away. I have since then filled in all the holes that I believe they have come up from with plastic bags. I know they don’t eat plastic like mice do, so I’m hoping that they stay where they belong!
But back to poor Malachi. Now, for whatever reason, he is absolutely terrified with sitting at the table. He’s fine with walking around the kitchen and dinning room. But getting him to sit in his, or anyone else’s chair? Forget it! He cries and screams and is truly scared. He keeps looking at the floor, expecting to see something. Of course, it didn’t help that his Mother told him that the “animal” (as he calls them) is all gone. This was at supper on Tuesday night. Sure enough, as soon as those words were out of my mouth, he looks down to the floor and there it is. Another one. His Mother wasn’t so thrilled about it either.
We don’t know what to do. I’m not sure he knows exactly why he is so scared, nor can we help to get over it. He’s so scared, that he’s even willing to for-go eating. I’m not kidding! He wants to sit on my lap the entire time (after much wailing and great tears, he settled on Adam’s lap tonight). This morning, he wanted to eat his applesauce, but as soon as I said, “Okay. Sit in your chair.”, he wanted no part of it. The next thing I knew, I saw him eating it standing up. He was right next to his chair, but just not sitting in it! We keep praying that the Lord will take away the fear in his heart. That’s the only thing we can think of to do.
Any body have any ideas?
BTW: If you are under the impression that a rodent can not escape from the sticky stuff on the sticky trap. That’s not true. They can. With the first one, it got off that stuff 3 times. The second one got off 2 times. And the lucky sixth one? Yeah, he got off too.
Bummer.