Triggers

Tearing off the cartoon on the Far Side daily calendar I saw a picture of a mouse coming through his front door and staring down at a mouse trap with a hunk of cheese on it. First thought, why cheese? When did the conjunction of mice and cheese occur?

Which lead to the thought of how we used to put out mouse traps with no bait on them in our old farm house. We would put them along their path of travel and we always caught mice.

Which then lead to the old rat traps we used in the milkhouse of the barn. We only used them in the milkhouse so the cats wouldn't get caught in them. Can you conjure an image of the stereotypical bear trap? One of those large jagged jaw contraptions requiring a thick soled boot to set. We used smaller versions of those meant for raccoons, possums, and similar rodents. They had rust all over them from years out in the elements. One morning we went into the milkhouse and discovered that a mouse had gone for the bait on the trap. It must have really pounced on the food to set off that old rusty trap. There he sat, nibbling away on the oats we had used as bait, unable to escape due to his tail being caught in the jaws that snapped together over him. In all unfairness, we threw it to the cats, still caught in the trap and unable to run.