Tacky Paper and a Mouse!

A little humor story to share about being a business owner. This took place when I owned a home and office cleaning company many years ago. It was my very first business.

 

“TACKY PAPER AND A MOUSE”

           

I am not very fond of mice even though they are sort of cute when you really take a close look at them.

I was training a new lady at one of our house accounts. She was someone who I had known for quite some time, and she eventually became my office assistant for the business.

           

We were busy cleaning, and all was quiet. I was in the bathroom cleaning, and she had taken on the chore of cleaning the kitchen when all of a sudden, I heard a blood curdling scream, and the scream didn’t stop. I went running to her thinking that she was being attacked, and lo and behold, she had reached under the sink to grab the trash can and her rubber glove had gotten stuck to the tacky paper that was under the sink. Of course, there was a live mouse stuck to that tacky paper!

           

When I arrived at the kitchen door, I saw that poor woman jumping up and down flapping her hands, with a mouse stuck to her glove! She had a red face, wide open startled eyes, and her mouth was wide open screaming. Her loud screaming was continuous, and boy, did I wish I had had a camera!

           

I finally was able to calm her down enough to help her out. That poor mouse had taken the ride of its life with her. We eventually got the glove unstuck and I threw the tacky paper with the mouse attached in the dumpster that sat right outside of the kitchen door. I thought quite ill of the homeowners for killing mice that way. It seemed like a cruel way of starving them to death.

           

After all the excitement, it took my friend a bit of time to finish cleaning the kitchen, so every once in a while, I would open the kitchen door where the dumpster was located.

           

“Help me! Help me!” I would quietly say in my little, tiny mouse voice.

           

She didn’t see the humor at all with me making fun of her and the incident.

           

The next day the homeowner called and asked me if we had found the tacky paper under the sink. I informed her that yes, we did find it and threw it out because there was a mouse stuck to it.

           

“Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “We take the mice off of the tacky paper with oil and put them in a cage and then we take them to a field and let them go.”

           

I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding; I am the mouse killer, not the homeowner?!

 

From “It Is What It Is…But It Wasn’t A Tragedy by Debra Lee

Debra Lee | Author | Keynote Speaker | Biz & Life Coach