hickory dickory dock

If you're queezy, do yourself a HUGE favor and stop right here.

Zee and I came home a little late today, after our daily outing. We met Duane at the book store and walked together. As I opened the front door, the unmistakable smell of something long-dead hit me squarely in the face. I half expected my husband to tell me I was imagining things (as he so often does in affairs of olfaction) when he screwed up his face with that universal "ick" expression.

For about an hour, he tore the apartment apart, looking for the offending body. He couldn't find it. What if it was somewhere in the walls?!? What if it was a dead rat or bird, somewhere in the walls, and we had to live with that smell until it completely decomposed?!? What if it WASN'T IN THE WALLS!!!!!!!! Then, I had visions of the baby happening upon it, one morning and immediately sticking it in his mouth. I was poised on the precipice. My arms were flailing and my toes were dangling over the edge of mental collapse, simply from imagining the maggots and disease.

That's when Duane found the poor little sucker. Siibel must have found another mouse and "played" with it, the way she does. At some point, it apparently broke away and ran behind the basket by the front door, and died.

Now, before you curl your lip in disgust, a recent talk with the neighbors in the apt downstairs revealed that the mice were inherited from the tenants before us (frat boys) and I'm very careful about cleaning the kitchen and keeping food and such off of the floor. I'm the first to tell you that I'm not the best housekeeper, but it's more an issue of toys on the floor than actual dirt.

At any rate, I'm having quite a dilemma with the mice. I want them dead and gone. The same also goes for any other unwanted creatures which might expose my child/household to parasites and numerous unimaginable diseases. I don't want to hear one "humane" word about it, either. I have a child. Babies shouldn't have to live in a home with mice. You know what else? Neither should I. However, I am at a complete loss as to how to get rid of them.

I can't call an exterminator. It's a long story, but I can't breathe the fumes from chemical pesticides. It could kill me, quite literally. That stuff couldn't possibly be good for Zane, either. I can't really put down traps, because of Zane and the Cats. I can't put down poison for the same reason. I don't know what to do. My cats had to be put on Advantage Flea Medicine because of this. Poor Max had licked a bald patch on her leg. I can only imagine what other things are crawling all over the floor and it's making me insane.

HELP!!!!!!