That's right, a mouse. I've got a mouse in my office. Well, it's probably not here full-time, but it does drop in and visit. Speaking of dropping, that's what's in the photo: droppings. See the two little black sesame-seed looking things? Mouse poop. On my desk. (Describing it with a food metaphor is kinda making me queasy. Bleah.)
A couple of weeks ago, there was a knock at my door. A couple of jolly fellows were putting mouse traps in everyone's offices in the Psychology wing. I told them I hadn't seen any mice, but they were quick to point out two little black grains of rice (bleah) on the floor. They didn't clean up the poop.
At this point, the lightbulb went off in my head. Oh, yeah. The chocolate bar that I left on my side table the other day. I came in to find it half eaten. I wasn't pleased as I threw the remainder away (Swiss dark chocolate!)--I figured the cleaning staff had seen it an gotten a bit hungry. Nope. Those must've been mouse teeth marks.
OK, so now: mouse trap. The problem is that it hasn't been working. I come into my office in the morning and regularly find more poops. On my desk. Of course you know, this means war! I don't want to get hantavirus. So yesterday I went out and got a couple of better mousetraps, put some cheese in them (this is what cartoons have taught me: mice love cheese), turned out the lights and left for the day. Heh-heh-heh, I laughed menacingly.
Today I opened the door to my office hesitantly. What would I find? Answer: nothing. OK, not exactly nothing. No mouse. No cheese. Yup, the l'il sucker ripped off my cheese. But at least the mouse traps were still there. This means I'm now helpfully feeding the mouse that's running around on the second floor. Dr Snyder, whose office is just down the hall, recently saw it looking at him from his bookshelf, but he wasn't able to catch it. In my office, however, the mouse prefers my desk. Evidence? Another poop. Probably left right after polishing off those two bits of cheese. Can a mouse be impertinent?
I suppose there's some joke in here somewhere about a psychologist and a mouse, but I'm drawing a blank. Do you know any good ones?
Why aren't you studying?
The Mouse
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Find It
All I got from this story is that you have been outsmarted by a mouse.
...and how does that make you feel?
One day, at the University of Alberta Psychology lab, a mouse escaped from his cage and went wandering about. This was no ordinary mouse, of course; he was a Psychology mouse—born and raised right in the Psychology wing, and thus he had observed and learned all about the principles of psychology.
"I wonder if humans consider poop a reinforcer or a punisher?" he quipped.
And so, this was the start of his grand adventure.
If it makes you feel any better, your cheese wasn't very good.
Put some food around your office and coat it with a ground pepper paste, the spicier the better. If the taste aversion stuff you taught in class is right that should help a bit. Also would make for a funny video if you could catch it in the act.
mice love peanut butter as well
A mouse crawled into my bed whilst I was sleeping. Your story is now irrelevant.
@Anastasia: Ah, so that's where my mouse went. Naughty mouse!