Hi Friends,
One of the things we can usually count on here in Lake Tahoe is that the beginning of October will still mean bikinis and paddle boarding—the locals’ summer when the tourists have gone, the lake is calm, and the trails are empty. It’s one of my favorite times of the year here in California’s Sierra Nevada.
By the end of October, however, we usually see our first real snowstorm (meaning the one where the snow sticks, because we can get snow any month of the year).
A few days ago, we had that storm, and even though all the snow at my house has melted, it’s still sticking in the high country. And the lows will be in the teens this weekend—a good sign for another good snow year.
This is also the time of year when the bears are most active, as I wrote about here and the mice start seeking shelter in our garages and houses.
As I’ve mentioned before, I love all animals, even rats and mice, so much to my husband’s chagrin, the way we deal with the annual rodent invasion is by live trapping mice and relocating them. Because these deer mice have a strong homing instinct and can travel a couple miles to come back (even swimming through rivers), we have to drive the mice a few miles away, hoping they’ll make their new home elsewhere.
Though my husband was resistant to this mouse-removal method at first (okay, he’s still a little resistant but knows this isn’t something I’ll budge on), he’s gotten used to this yearly ritual.
Before we married, I found a nest of deer mice in an old ski boot in my closet. The mother was nowhere to be found, and the babies were still blind and hairless, making their tiny mouse squeaks.
My then-boyfriend said, “They won’t survive without their mother. Bury them in the yard.”
I told him I would do no such thing and went to the pet store and bought a little mouse terrarium, some bedding, and a water dispenser. I came home and put the baby mice into the glass box, and that night I set up my live trap, telling my soon-to-be husband I would find that mother. He said, “You’re wasting your time. You won’t catch the mother. Those babies are going to die.”
In the morning, a frantic mouse was in my trap. My almost-husband said, “How do you know that’s the mother? That could be anyone.” I placed the mouse into the