A Mouse?

I am also amazed by how my mind can trick me into conjuring up things which have no basis in the evidence before my eyes.

I live in the downstairs apartment of a house halfway up a hill. It is surrounded by nature - quite lovely. A drought resistant garden, boasting succulents and lavendar bushes.  A bamboo hedge on the kitchen side, and on the living room side a hibiscus tree,  shrubs, herbs, and succulents.  In summer I sit outside to admire the setting of the sun as it drops behind Mt. Tamalpais.  Stripes of crimson, fuschia, orange, and deep gold shimmer on the bay.  On the other side I sit on the patio and contemplate the humming birds flitting in and out of the hibiscus tree.

My microwave sits on a shelf near a water closet. In the space between are wooden chopping boards and a wooden tray. One evening when I moved the boards to take out the tray I saw cumin seed in the corner,  next to the water closet.  I do use cumin seed quite often, but hadn't used it recently. Also, there is no reason on earth that I would spread it in a corner.  But that is what I saw, so I cleaned the shelf and thought no more about this.  A couple of nights later, the same thing.  Hmm, I thought, interesting how the cumin seed must cling to the chopping boards and succumb to the laws of gravity overnight.  Again, I cleaned them up, and carried on with this ritual almost every morning.  Always more cumin seeds, and I hadn't used them the night before.  Fascinating.

My landlords  returned from one of their exotic vacations, and I was no longer alone.  This allowed me to consider the fact that these were probably not cumin seeds.

I emailed an SOS and down came the landlord to check. I showed him the seeds and he confirmed my buried suspicion - mouse droppings.   Mice freak me out - they feel to me like creatures of the underworld, deeply disturbing. I went off to ACE Hardware and invested in a couple of humane traps. My landlords assured me they would take the trapped m;ouse away and let him go in a field far away.

According to instructions I placed a blob of organic crunchy peanut butter in the trap. (The instructions did not call for organic peanut butter, but I was quite pleased with my largesse.)  The next morning i checked the trap;   droppings,  no mouse. And the next morning.  The morning after that, neither droppings nor mouse. The rains had stopped so I presumed the mouse had left for outside.  After a week of neither droppings nor mouse I replaced the boards.  The next morning, droppings, but no mouse.

I am bamboozled. Does anyone know why a mouse (or mice) favor wooden boards?  I am not sure if I can cohabit with this creature.  Where is the Pied Piper when I need him.

Advice - help