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Facing My Fear of Mice

I’m not sure if I’ve ever talked about my fear of mice here. But, I’m terrified of mice. It probably sounds ridiculous because they’re super tiny and cute, but I swear, it stems from somewhere.

My Mouse Fear Origin Story

It all started when mice managed to get into the cabin of my 2013 Hyundai Elantra. They chewed a hole in the bottom of my center console and then squeezed their way into my car. How did I know they got in? Well, I got out of my shift from work to find a torn up sugar packet on my passenger seat. They got that packet by chewing a hole through the lunch box. Then, they apparently proceeded to poop and pee all over my seats and my dash.

That’s how I found out I had mice in my car. It was not only super gross due to all of the poop and pee, but it was terrifying. I had no choice but to drive my car even though I knew there were tiny little mice in it somewhere I couldn’t see.

I remember telling my grandfather about the ordeal when it happened. He was really the one who instilled a true fear of mice into me. He told me all about how mice carry all of these horrible diseases, some which can be fatal. (I later found out that the fatal one is SUPER uncommon where we live lol.) Then, he informed me that I needed to get my car deep cleaned to avoid getting sick. I’m sure his intentions were not to make me absolutely terrified of mice for life, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

More Car Incidents

Later, mice got into this particular car again. By this point, I found out that the car was just super prone to having mice get into them. I was driving home from school and I watched a mouse run from under my dashboard on the passenger side into the back of my car. Mind you, I was driving, and absolutely terrified.

I had no choice but to keep driving. I had to get home. But, I was terrified that the mouse was going to climb up my leg or something. I drove with my legs in the air the rest of that drive home. Honestly, I never wanted to drive my car again, but I was working multiple jobs at the time and I had absolutely no choice but to use my car to get to school and work.

Those weren’t the only mouse experiences I had with that car, but I did end up getting rid of it. I have gotten a new car since then that I had really hoped would be mouse-proof. However, it has proved to also not be mouse-proof.

This year, a friend and I got into my car to go do something. Before we left, I turned around to look for my hat in my back seat. I found myself in a stare down with a mouse sitting on my back seat. I screeched and scared my friend. We ended up taking her car LOL. She later removed the mouse nest from my cabin air filter. There was absolutely no way I was sticking my hand anywhere a mouse potentially was.

That Time Mice Ruined My Life

If you thought my mouse trauma ended there…you’re unfortunately wrong. Last year after I left my ex, I moved in with a friend. Instead of getting a storage unit like I wanted to, I put everything I owned in her basement. Later, I would find out that this house was quite literally infested with mice (and that is not an exaggeration). There was mouse poop on the counters in the kitchen…on the dining room table…IN MY BED UNDER MY COMFORTER. They were nesting in my clothes IN MY DRAWER IN MY CLOSET. I once watched a mouse run across the floor while I was working from home at my desk in my room.

Later, I found out that everything in the basement was destroyed from the mice. I had extra clothes that weren’t in-season in the basement on a clothing rack…the mice climbed up those clothes and pooped AND peed on them (they were literally stained from pee). They nested in any drawer or bin I had. I had to throw out everything I had left after leaving a relationship with really nothing. Pretty much all of my clothes were ruined, even many that were upstairs in the bedroom. I had a friend come over with her truck and we loaded it up with all of my stuff and threw it into a dumpster. Talk about traumatic.

I will say, I’m thankful that I had friends help me replace the clothes that I needed since I didn’t have the money to replace them. I couldn’t afford anything and I was drowning in debt.

Present Day

Now, let’s circle back to the title of this post, facing my fear of mice. Recently, my boyfriend called me out into the garage because he found a baby mouse by itself on the cold concrete floor. After all of the mouse trauma, you’d think I wouldn’t want to help this poor baby mouse. I was a bit afraid of it, but I immediately wanted to save it. Sure, I don’t think the world needs more mice in it, but I’m not going to let an innocent living thing die, even if its species has been traumatizing me for years.

The Rescue

I immediately started Googling who I could possibly contact to help us with the baby mouse. When Google proved to be a bit useless (many rehabbers don’t take small rodents), I ended up going to a Connecticut wildlife group on Facebook in hopes that someone there could point me in the right direction. Thankfully, I was able to get a rehabber’s number from that. While that rehabber couldn’t help, they were able to find a rehabber more local to us who could help with the baby mouse. We were told how to keep it warm to help keep it alive until we could get it to a rehabber.

I didn’t handle the mouse at all due to my fear of diseases and whatnot so I didn’t face THAT part of the fear. But, I was around it and did everything I could to try and save it. My boyfriend was the one who cared for it and made sure it had things to keep it warm after I got some spare rags we had to make a nest of sorts for it. We used a sock filled with rice that my boyfriend periodically warmed up for the mouse. The next morning, he dropped it off with a rehabber. I can only hope it survived…but if not, we did everything we could.

Post-Rescue

After we discovered the mouse, I was afraid because I knew if there were babies, there was a mother somewhere. I checked my car for ANY signs of mice, but thankfully it appeared I was safe. Despite this, I was still terrified to get into my car the next morning in the dark to go to work. I was petrified there were mice secretly lurking in my vehicle. It’s been over a week and I’m still paranoid that there are secretly mice in my car lol.

Am I still afraid of mice? Oh god yeah. There’s still a large chance I’ll freak out if I see a live mouse anywhere near my living areas. But, I couldn’t not try to save that sweet little baby.

-Kailey