MICE, MICE, MICE........{SCREAM} MICE

First of all, before I answer this challenge, I want everyone to know that yesterday my husband took a pretty sudden and serious turn for the worse. We had him up to the commode and he stopped breathing and I could not feel a radial (wrist) pulse although I could still hear a heartbeat with my stethoscope.  It was slow and faint. Drooping of his left eye and mouth makes me think he has had another little stroke. Or a vagal response. Was pretty scary for about 30 minutes. My brother was here with me. We called in the family and the grand kids. And lo, and behold today he is better. It has been a roller coaster ride, for sure. But I am thinking the end is getting nearer. Just wanted you all to know in case I disappear from my posting for a time. I will be back though. As I need this for my therapy and I would miss my blogger friends.

Now on to what I am afraid of!



I am afraid of mice. I am REALLY afraid of mice. I am so afraid of mice that I cannot even put a picture on this post of a real mouse. I had to chose a cartoon-type mouse. I can't look at a mouse on TV. I can't look at the picture of a mouse. I am wondering how I am going to make it through this post just talking about mice.

I am not kidding. I am not talking about a little fear. Nope! This is a screaming, crying, heart beating fast, sweating, terrified fear of mice. If I see a mouse or talk too much about mice, then I have nightmares about mice. Scary nightmares about mice. The WILLARD type nightmares about mice.

My husband says that I have a special "I have seen a mouse" scream that he recognizes right away. My sons used to laugh over the years about their mother's irrational fear of mice. I have tried to outgrow it. I have tried to deal with it. Nothing has worked. I am AFRAID of mice.

I don't like dead mice any better than I like the ones that are alive. A dead mouse will cause me to panic just as much as a live mouse. Once, when trying to conquer my fear of mice, we had a particularly bad winter at our house and more than a couple of mice moved in. I wouldn't let my husband use spring traps to kill them because I ALWAYS heard that trap 'snap' and then I was frozen in fear until he got it out of the house. And he couldn't leave any traps out during the day while he was at work (I worked night shift and slept in the daytime). We decided to use those nifty glue traps. But he had to get them out of the house before he left for work. One morning he forgot. I was lying on the couch watching TV after a hard night at the hospital. Suddenly, I started to hear this loud squeaking noise. And I noticed a glue trap moving down by the TV. Now what the HELL was I going to do. There was a LIVE (although trapped) mouse right there on the floor next to the TV. Was I going to bed? Nope. It might follow me. I know, I know. Irrational! I told you so.
So I got my husband's heavy leather work gloves from the garage and put them on. I grabbed that glue trap off the floor. So far, so good! I ran like crazy out to our garbage can, lifted the lid, tossed the thing inside and ran like a wild woman back into the house! My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest as I stood there holding that door shut. As I began to calm down, I realized just how stupid this was. That mouse was not going to get off the glue trap, run up out of the depths of the trash can and chase me into the house. Irrational, I tell you.  I was pretty proud of myself for being able to do this. I called my husband at work and told him of this huge accomplishment. He wanted to know if I had stomped on the trap before I threw it away. HELL NO! And I also did not let him put another one of those nasty things in our house.

Thankfully we haven't had a mouse in the house (ha! ha!) for a few years. But I am pretty sure I will be just as afraid of them as always.

I am going over to Tiffany's and see if there are any others who have irrational fears such as mine.