Thursday, August 14, 2014

Of Mice and (wo)Men

When I came in this morning, my coworker, who gets to the office ridiculously early, popped out of her office when she heard the door lock click. Now, this woman is one of the calmest, least excitable people I know, but this morning she was practically vibrating.

She had gone into the office kitchen to put her soda in the refrigerator, and on turning the corner after flipping on the lights, found a mouse, apparently dead, on the floor.

She flipped out a little bit; it's not so much that she is afraid of the little critters, but that they "skeeve her out". She checked back in the kitchen about an hour after she first saw the mouse, and it was still laying there, leading to the determination that it was "probably" dead. That was also the earliest she could call Facilities to come and deal with it (see comment about being "skeeved" out). (note that she gets to the office before 5:30 a.m.; I arrived just before 6:30, shortly after she placed the call).

She wanted me to look, to be sure it was dead (um, if it hasn't moved in this amount of time...), so I took a look.

Poor thing. It's little eyes were wide open, but no life was in them. It was sprawled out on its belly, tiny legs all akimbo, as if it were struck down in the midst of running.

I'm not exactly surprised. We are in an older building, and mice are simply a fact of life. That the problem is made worse by certain other coworkers is a point of vexation. Eh, I don't keep any food in the office, other than some protein bars (individually wrapped and boxes) that aren't very tasty.

The powers that be have unintentionally made the matter worse, as they have decreed that our trash (the baskets in the offices and cubes, not the one in the kitchen) is to be picked up only once a week, rather than daily. I'm not so sure everyone else is doing what I do - taking any food related trash to the basket in the kitchen.

It's a bit of a shame the mouse couldn't have been left until the people who leave so much food lying about came in to see it; maybe an actual visual would be more effective than just telling them to clean up their act.

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