Mouse in my Treehouse

A mouse in my treehouse sounds like a great name for a children’s book. But for me, it meant no sleep. Staying in fun lodging seems like a great idea, but in reality it might not be. In Peru we booked a jungle adventure complete with two nights in a treehouse. Our first night in the treehouse I came back alone while Rebecca went to learn from our amazing chef. Our room consists of two small beds, a shower, two side tables, a chair, a sink and toilet. It’s very bare which is for the best. 

So there I was sitting on my bed doing some writing when I kept hearing a strange sound. There are so many sounds in the jungle that it was odd this one stood out. Finally I realized it was the crinkle of plastic and looked up to see a very round mouse on Rebecca’s table nibbling his way through a bag to get to our delicious trail mix. I think mice are cute, but not in my room! And his long creepy tail gave me shivers. Being a mature adult I decided to throw things at him to scare him off. But he won that battle. So instead I ran away. 

Rebecca asked me if I took the snacks out of the room. “No! He was on them, I ran away!!” Clearly, that was my only option. 

After dinner we went back to our treehouse to look for the furry snack thief. He was gone and left only evidence with a trail of cashews and torn plastic. Giving the room a good once over and making sure we had no other treats we were safe. Or so I thought…

I curled up in my tiny bed with the mosquito netting around me. For someone who travels quite a bit, I’m not great at sleeping in strange places and I feared I wouldn’t sleep with the jungle sounds and screaming rats, (yes, those are real!) But after a sleeping pill and long day I was done. While mosquito netting might keep out the bugs, it doesn’t protect from larger stronger animals just climbing on in. 

At about 4:30 I woke to a strange sound by my head. My mouse friend was back and on my pillow! I turned on my light as quickly as possible and looked for things to throw at him as I startled Rebecca awake. He backed away slowly just staring at me wondering what all the fuss was about. I tried tucking my netting into the bed for extra protection, but it was too late to feel safe. So now here I am writing this instead of sleeping because the thought of him crawling on my bed again has got me wide awake. Hoping the bright side will be electricity coming on soon so that I can shower and get the stink off of me! You’d think that would have deterred him in the first place.