Actually, we never feed her live prey — she’s quite content with thawed-out mouse-sickles. She pounces on them and constricts them just like she would if she were a wild snake. She also likes to “rattle” her tail — we say Aw, look, she thinks she’s a big, bad rattlesnake!

I suspect the guy(s) is/are surfacing somewhere; placing the trap near a vent will probably lure them out. They have remarkable sniffers for finding food.

Some time ago we would hear mice in the suspended ceiling of the family room, but that has ceased since we have our lawn service spray perimeter pest control around the house several times a year.

Emmalina will, however, get the bugger if it surfaces! It’s keeping her entertained in the meantime.

I’d rather catch a live mouse than get rid of a dead one, so we used a couple Smart Mouse Traps baited with peanut butter on cardboard. The mouse can’t actually get to the peanut butter, so it is very important to check the traps daily so we don’t starve a mouse.

The instructions say to “release where needed” and we have a park about 5 miles away with a resident hawk, so I suspect s/he needs the mouse more than we do. I wonder if it sees our car and thinks “Delivery!”

We typically have to set the traps three or four times at the beginning of cold season, catching a half dozen or so mice. Once we go a week without a catch, we remove the traps. We haven’t had any trouble with mice in the house after the traps have been removed, but I wouldn’t mind if we had to keep catching and releasing all winter. I just sort of accept that if I am going to live out here in the country, in a not so new house, I’m going to have to deal with mice from time to time.

Don’t use the glue traps.. I did once and it’s just horrible to see the little thing stuck and struggling – I’d rather just kill ‘em quick with a snap trap.

And perhaps you might want to consider “the adventures of Emmalina” as a blog mini-series!