We seem to have a mouse problem at my office. Apparently, the cold weather has driven mice from the outside or the attached warehouse into the office. They leave little gifts for us and they always find any morsel of food.

I have never been bothered by mice. However, during times like these, I find that many people are freaked out by them.

Regardless of my not being bothered by them, I know that ultimately the mice must go. I took a trip to WalMart where they have a lot of traps, many of which do not kill the mouse but instead ensnare it so that I guess you have to drown it or step on it or something. That really seems cruel to me. I saw some traps that are actually a "catch and release" live trap. I guess you are supposed to go dump them in the country where they can retire to a nice, quiet life. That seemed humane but really rather odd and I figured that, with my luck, I would have "homing mice".

So, I went for the traditional "trigger" traps. I figure they (usually) kill the mouse very quickly .. they also were the cheapest traps I could find. I bought a pack of four traps for something like a buck and a half.

(By the way, the traps that just catch the mice in some sort of sticky substance, leaving them to squirm and make noise, sort of freak me out.)

Well, last night before I left the office, I baited all four traps with peanut butter and set them around at strategic locations. I figured I would have at least two or three dead mice to deal with in the morning.

I walked into the office this morning fully expecting to be emptying some traps. As I walked around from trap to trap, I not only found the traps to not have any dead mice in them, and to not be tripped, but I also found them to be completely stripped of the peanut butter bait. Somehow, those little buggers had literally licked the bait stations clean, but not set off the traps.

One of my friends at work commented that Thanksgiving apparently came early for the mice. I kept imagining these fat, happy mice hiding in corners all day, letting out an occasional peanut butter burp.

I wonder ... did the mice know they were flirting with death as they ate the peanut butter? Did they realize how close they were to meeting their maker? Did they have a little meeting to discuss their strategy before they started eating the bait?

I came to the conclusion that these had to have been very smart mice. Gifted in fact. Which led to the obvious question of whether I should continue to try to trap them.

After all, a gifted mouse mind is a terrible thing to waste.