The Great Mouse Saga, Part 1

A few months ago, Robert watched Simba lazily follow a mouse across the driveway; batting at it a few times when it stopped moving, but still allowing it to just meander away from him.  And then it went under the garage door (there is a teensy gap on one side because of the slope allowing for drainage).  Robert opened the garage door and Simba sniffed around for the mouse a little bit, but that was it.  The mouse was in the house/garage.  We figured since there wasn’t a way for it to get inside or have access to food to welcome it to the garage, it would probably leave on its own in search for food.

A few weeks go by and we heard some scratching in the heater vents and concluded the mouse found a way under the house and/or into the vents and possibly invited a friend or two (but not sure how they got there).  

After getting Leia to stop barking at the vent (which was only because the mouse stopped scratching) we ignored it.  A few days or a week pass and Simba becomes REALLY interested in the vent in the laundry room.  He kept sneaking into the room and I'd have to shoo him out to close the door - rinse and repeat the entire day (I was doing laundry). We didn't hear or see anything and thought nothing of it.... until Leia started barking at the vent.  I opened the vent up and found some fluff and debris (nest-like material possibly) and a couple mouse poos. We cleaned that vent out, checked a few more (and found dirt and dust but no mouse evidence) and then gave up for the night.  (And dude do we have to remember to open up the intake vent more often - there was so much dust and pet hair in there!)

Still – how in the world did they get into the heater system? 

Robert declared he would go under the house to make sure there was no access for them there because we couldn't figure out how else they were getting in there.  

To be continued. . . .