Unwanted House Guests

Last week I was rearranging things in the garage when I noticed some mouse droppings. I showed them to my sister who verified my fear. I told James of my anxieties concerning mice in my house, but he did not hop right into action, much to my dismay. My sister said we should keep the mouse info on the DL since my mom was here for Christmas.
The morning after Christmas, James told me that he had heard scurryng sounds while in the basement. I insisted that we buy traps right away, James said the mice could be cute guests like Fifel. No. Things started moving quickly after I dashed James' dreams of having a cartoon mouse in our basement. We immediately went to Wal-Mart to buy traps, or as I call them: mouse beds. If you mention the word trap and a mouse hears, he might hide so as to not get killed. Just a little side note: Wal-Mart was crazy the day after Christmas. There were pallets of merchandise all over the place, waiting to be shelved. There were bits of garbage and tons of people everywhere! Since we didn't know where to find the traps, we ended up walking all over the store with a 24 pack of Dr. Pepper!
We set out the traps Wednesday evening. By 9:00, we had our first hit. The only problem was that the trap didn't kill its prey. At first, James thought the mouse was just sitting near the trap eating the cheese and pushing the trap around. After a second look it was discovered that the mouse's little paw was caught. I thought we should kill the little guy since the trap hadn't done its job. I grabbed a hammer and insisted that James smash it. He only said in a scared voice, "I can't do it!" After a phone call to my mother about a possible poison for the mouse and several urgings to smash him with the hammer, my brave husband finally smashed the intruder with a snow shovel. It was an act deserving a purple heart.
Since then, we have trapped three mice, bringing the grand total to four. We will continue to set out little beds with night-time snacks for our friends in the garage. The good news is that none have been caught in the house. That makes us assume that there are none here. And that is a great thing for all of us!