mouse magnet

I was welcomed back to school this morning (after a four day weekend) by a very strong, unpleasant odor. But the story actually begins two weeks ago...

At that time, the technology teacher/support guy saw a mouse run across the upstairs foyer and into my classroom. After a lot of investigating by me and my ESL cohort, and laying of mouse traps by the Hausmeister, we finally discovered how the little guy was traveling back and forth between rooms. The Hausmeister's method proved unsuccessful as the mouse was smart enough to remove the bait off of all the traps without getting caught. After two days of this, I walked in on the little guy trying to traverse my room and cornered him in the bookcase. The Hausmeister was able to scoop him into an empty trash bin (after we both squealed like little girls a couple of times) and escort him outside safely.

Back to today...

My neighbor assumed the odor was due to my classroom door being closed all weekend but an unpleasant thought began to take hold in my mind. After lunch, the odor was even worse so I started looking around. I lifted up one of two bean bags and sandwiched between them was, you guessed it, a dead mouse (not the same one as before). The odor I released was now enough to make me retch. I quickly dropped the bag, opened the nearest window, leaned out and gulped fresh air. The Hausmeister was called for and quickly disposed of the mouse AND the bean bag chairs.

Yuck! And to top it all off, I now have the dubious title of "Mouse Magnet" - and I've only been here since August! And, I'm in an upstairs room!! And, I don't leave food lying around!! Why not down in the primary rooms where kids leave crumbs all over? I'm just lucky I guess :)