My day started at around 4 AM in the morning. I woke up in a complete darkness to a loud, rustling sound coming from the corner of my room. I was awake in a split second, heart beating like a drum. I grabbed my light, put it on and pointed it to the corner of the room. My food bags lay there, but nothing else. I tried to search the room but didn't find anything. I went back to sleep, doubting myself - maybe it was just a dream. But just as I was about to fall asleep again, it came back. Rustling of the food bags. Slowly and silently I picked up the light, pointed and put it on.
And there it was. A mouse, or a small rat. I got a glimpse before it disappeared behind the rubble. Actually, I was quite relieved, because I had feared that it was one of those big, cat sized rats, that you see in India and some other places. I took a shoe for stamping the creature, but it was impossible to find, so I went to sleep.
The same thing happened 5 times during the next hours. Everytime as it got to my food, I put on the light to smash it with my shoe, but each time it outran or outsmarted me. Once I was already totally certain that I would get it, as I saw it hide behind a bag. But as I removed the bag, there was nothing.
In the morning, I talked with the locals. They laughed and told me that mice in the house are very common. Particularly hard-to-catch individuals, they call "the landlords". In the evening I bought a mouseboard from the street. It's a sticky board, where you plant food in the middle and the mice get stuck when they come to get it.
Power had shifted. around nine o'clock in the evening, I had the "landlord" on my trap. But when I saw it struggle there to get out, I just pitied it. I removed it and let it outside. And to my surprise, the next morning I found another landlord from the board.
After that weekend, there's been several others "lording" my house. The next generation is smarter, however. They don't go to my traps as easily as the first ones.
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