It Finally Happened

So, it finally happened.  After living in our house for nearly 8 years.  After living right next to a corn/bean field, depending on the year.  After doing several construction projects where openings were made in the house.  A. Mouse. Got. In. 

Sunday, I decided to do some laundry.  Thank goodness I decided to do laundry on Sunday and not Monday which is my usual plan.  I did one load and put it in the dryer and started the next load.  Once the dryer was done I noticed it smelled.  Really bad.  Like poop or something.  But, once the clothes came out of the dryer they didn't smell.  I ran the dryer again, and again the smell was back, but left the clothes once they were out of the dryer.  So, I called in the troops....my husband.  He right away said....yeah, it smells like dead animal.  UGH!  Dead animal?  Where?

After pulling out the dryer, taking off the dryer vent, going outside and taking off the cap off the dryer vent and not seeing anything, we had to go to plan B.  He went in the basement and took apart some shelving to get to the dryer vent down there and take it apart.  We used the camera to take pictures inside the dryer vent.  Nothing.  Finally he went back outside and fashioned a stick with a nail and reached into the dryer vent and sure enough, pulled out a dead mouse. 

Ugh!  That was just a little too close for comfort for me.  I HATE mice.  As a child, I grew up in an old house on a farm and we had mice EVERY winter.  I still get the shivers thinking about it. I don't know what will happen the day that I see a mouse run across the floor in my house.  I may not get so lucky as to have my husband home at that moment.  But, I was sure glad he was here on Sunday to take care of that dead mouse.  We do have two cats in the house, but I'm not quite sure if they would know what to do if they saw a mouse run across the floor in front of them. 

What do you do to keep mice out of your house?  How do you handle it if you see a mouse in your house?