Let's play a game called cat and mouse

You're not a true New Yorker till you've dealt with bed bugs, cockroaches, and mice.

I am now a true New Yorker.

It all started when my bread began to go missing. I'm pretty good at keeping all my food in the fridge so any roaches in the building aren't having a party in my apartment, but I tend to keep fresh bread above the fridge for a couple days before reluctantly putting it in the fridge. A fresh loaf of bread wasn't there for more than a day before I noticed a hole through the plastic and bread crumbs everywhere. My first instinct was "wow, those roaches are really hungry." But silly me knew that was a lot of plastic for a little roach to get through.

I threw the loaf in the garbage out of fear and bought a new one. Next day, same thing. "Oh no," I thought. "There's no way I have a mouse." But sure enough, I removed everything on top of my fridge and there were little droppings everywhere. Then the next day I swore I saw it scurry away from the fridge out of the corner of my eye.

I texted my roommate to let her know we had a mouse and to be careful with any food out. "WHATTTTT YOU'RE KIDDING ME RIGHT?" was the response I got. Come to find out, her biggest fear is mice.

A few days later it actually ran over my foot. And hers. But I continued cooking while she ran screaming into her bedroom. Not that I want it in my apartment, but it's kind of cute since it's so small and grey, I couldn't fathom the thought of actually killing a small animal and disposing of it.

My super gave me some glue traps. I scratched my head as I looked at them -- glue traps? They were pieces of cardboard that I folded into a tent with extremely sticky glue on the inside. The idea is the mouse will step on it and get stuck. It doesn't kill it though -- when I googled glue traps a lot of people call them inhumane, others suggested stomping on the little guy to finish the job. Uh, what?

I eventually bought some snap traps and never realized how difficult -- and dangerous -- they are to set up. I was home alone, spreading peanut butter on the trap, and attempting to set the trigger without snapping my finger off. After several failed attempts, sore thumbs, and broken wood, I had two ready to go. I slowly placed them on each side of the fridge.

"So, did you catch your mouse yet?" "No…."

This little guy is smart.

One day my roommate texted me to let me know she couldn't take the garbage out because she saw the mouse. "Oh jeez," I thought. When I got home I tried taking the garbage out -- to find that the mouse had created a huge hole in the bottom of the bag, filling the can with garbage. I threw the whole thing out and bought a new one. Did you know mice hate cayenne pepper? I sprinkled the red powder all over the can.

I'd text my dad: "but what do I do when I catch it?! I'm not picking it up!"

This was about a month ago. I haven't seen it. But it's not in my traps. Maybe it got bored in my apartment…there's not a single thing for it to eat. Unless it wants cayenne pepper.