For the past few months, Ella and Bubba have been taking turns being vigilant along our oven/range, which hasn't worked for about the same amount of time. One or the other of them would spend hours waiting by, it so I figured something was there., or at least that they thought something was there. But we never saw anything. When our local fix-it guy was unable to repair the oven, we bought a new one, which was delivered about a week ago. Between the time that the old one was taken out and the new one brought in, I cleaned and mopped the floor in that area, which wasn't as much of a mess as I had feared. Last night, while I was going upstairs to bed, I came across a very small mouse on one of the steps, being very still, hoping no one would notice him. That worked as far as Ella was concerned because she walked right past the mouse. A few steps behind her, Bubba also walked past the mouse but then did a double take, turned around, and was on it. He carried the mouse downstairs, and I figured I'd have a mess to clean up. I didn't want him tearing a mouse apart somewhere in the house, where I wouldn't know where the pieces might be, so I followed. However, it seems that he was more interested in playing. He dropped the mouse, letting it run away so that he could give chance, but the mouse scampered under a refrigerator that I have downstairs (our kitchen is upstairs) for drinks and stuff, and then Bubba quickly gave up, as if to say, "Oh well, he got away. I'll find him later." Maybe he will, but I couldn't find him.
Snap traps are the only way to go. I get mice in my house every few years...they come up from the crawlspace (as evidenced by all the snake sheds under there.) So not knowing exactly when they'll decide to appear, I keep a couple of traps set out all the time. Regarding Bubba: The only thing worse is when cats bring the live mice inside the house from outside and then set them free.
We get a mouse invasion every fall-into winter when the temps get cold, usually in the garage, but they also like the animal feed kept in outbuildings or any large containers of seeds. This spring a new thing happened. We keep 2-liter plastic bottles around to fertilizer squash and pumpkins. They are kept in an outbuilding on the other side of the property. This year, when wife pulled out the bottles in preparation for using them to fertilize squashes, she notices an awful-smelling black goo in one of the bottles. She couldn't figure out what it was since the bottles are stored empty. When she dumped it out it had a bunch of mouse skeletons in the goo. Apparently the rodents were looking for nesting places for the winter, got in the bottle, and couldn't get out. I don't know why they couldn't chew their way out. It worked in a similar way to those metal "tin cats" that can catch numbers of mice at a time.