One Very Lucky Mouse ....!

 Okay. So, I keep my beer in my store room. Place where I store all my pest control gear, traps and shit. I have one wall in there shelved, and floor to ceiling covered in various cage traps.

 Two of these traps are " Monarch " rat traps. Made by the late, and deeply lamented, firm of S. Young and Sons (Misterton). 

 I don't know what name you may know them under. But, these are the ones like a little, wire aircraft hangar. Funnel entrance leads to a lead counter weighted trap door. Trap door tilts down to allow the captive into the second compartment. From which there is no escape.

 Sadly, I have pretty conclusive proof of this 'No Escape' thing. It's still there, as I type. The mummified husk of a mouse, hanging through the 1/4" mesh at the bottom of one of the traps.

 Poor little bastard had got in there and tried to squeeze back out. Unfortunately, mice have this habit of squeezing through ridiculously small holes. Then they fuck up at the hips. Seen it all before.

 So, that poor fucker constricted its guts to christ knows what. Then hung there and dehydrated. FFS. Of course, the Trap Wall being the other end of the room? A thirsty man's not going to pay it much attention as he marches in to refill from just inside the door.

 That's how come this other mouse was So fucking lucky. It just all came together for him. 

 It was very late at night. I'd finished with the fora and was sat watching a film, on Netflix. Drinking beer, naturally. Thus I had my hearing aid in. Without it, I'm deaf as a post. Couldn't follow the dialogue on a film without the volume cranked up to (to you) ear shattering levels.

 I'd sneaked off to grab a refill and, as I knelt at the barrel, pouring one off I heard a 'Ting!' from the far end of the room. I'm like; " WTF?! "

 Stood up and stared. Movement. There, in the second Monarch trap. One with the shrivelled mouse hanging out of it. Only, This mouse was very much alive and running round inside the second compartment. The trap door shutting behind him had made that sound.

 That was one lucky mouse. House mouse. He'd come in for a scout around. It's getting cooler out there. Fuck it. I took him back outside and opened the traps back door. Let him go back about his business. Why the fuck not?

 Sad thing is; In attending that trap, I found the bare bones of a Third mouse, in the front compartment! That poor little bastard must've been caught earlier and got fly blown. So, our little man here was third time lucky.

 I've learned. Now both traps have their release doors open. And the trap doors between compartments are each held open with a steel tent peg.    

 I'm a pest controller. If and when the mice coming in here get to bothering me? I set my snapper traps and wipe them out. Humanely. I can't stand the thought of unnecessary suffering though. And, I don't just kill shit because it's there.