Every December when I go home for Christmas, I bring along a package of cheap, wooden mousetraps. My parents have a gated side-yard that houses their air conditioner, and a few years ago mice built their home among the mechanics and chewed the wires when they got bored. So in return for Christmas dinner I often trap a few mice while I’m home.
Baited with chunky peanut butter, I’ll typically lay two traps and check them twice each day, usually emptying them of a pair of frozen mice each time.
Last Christmas, the mouse catching was still going strong when Laura and I left for our home in Kansas City, so I left the traps baited for Tim to monitor. Around New Year’s Eve, Tim sent me a text message with a picture of a dead bird in one of our traps. Apparently sparrows like peanut butter, and the tense spring of the trap isn’t picky.
Thinking that he’d better stop before he trapped a neighborhood cat or skunk, he sent me one last picture… Christmas Dinner.