Mickey's Downfall

While sitting on the couch the other day I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a mouse sitting in the kitchen and he quickly ran back to safety under the oven. We were heading out and we didn't have any sort of trap so I had to quickly build one. It has 5 components. First a dab of peanut butter is put on a piece of card. A matchstick under the card makes it act like a small see-saw. A 6" architect's scale rule (or any small ruler) is held on edge with one end on the see-saw. A large tuperware container is then placed over everything and held off the floor with the ruler. The idea was that any movement of the card would knock the ruler over and cause the container to drop. The trap was set and we left.
Well, when we got back a couple of hours later the trap had been activated. Unfortunately the container wasn't heavy enough to keep the mouse in. He had pushed it across the floor to the wall and squeezed out under it. So we tried again. This time, as you can see, I added a small spanish phrase book for some extra weight (any language will do). I expected it to work over night, but there was nothing in the morning. It was several hours later, while we were at work, that the mouse was caught.Here he is. Not quite strong enough to push it this time. According to our field guide, he's a "white footed mouse".Of course later that night we released him back into the wild of East Rock Park.