What is a Critter Getter and Where Can I Find One?

I struggled to find a name for this blog -- something unique and something "me". My dear husband has been in Iraq for 10 months now and, in that time, our house has been under attack by all creatures great and small, furry and slimy, flying and walking! The kids and I have battled squirrels in the attic, mice in the basement, yellowjackets in the yard, a snake in the basement and a mother opossum and her seven babies -- IN THE BASEMENT. Of course, the boys (age 9 and 7) have totally gotten in to the "trapping" lifestyle. One of the daily chores is to go downstairs and check the traps. We've had live traps, snap traps, poison and finally, sticky traps. Up until yesterday, we were blissfully plodding from summer to fall. The last round of sticky traps had been in the basement for two whole weeks with nothing more than a cricket and two spiders to show. The yesterday morning we found that one of the sticky traps was gone. No, it wasn't just pulled away from the area where it had been left -- it is absolutely gone. Now, I'm pretty rational, so I know that it is in my basement -somewhere- with a dead or previously living rodent of some sort stuck to it. I know we'll find it when the smell starts to get strong.

Anyway, as much to pass the time as anything else, I had the boys suit up and head to basement to find the trap. Of course they didn't, but it kept them busy for 30 or 40 minutes.

Can you imagine the anger and frustration I felt this morning when I went downstairs to check the remaining trap and I found that one of our dear sons had left the basement door open -- all night? So now, who knows what critters have crawled in to get out of the cold? All I know is that I set more traps this morning and I TIED THEM TO THE FURNITURE! (We may have to make another trap-run to Southern States this afternoon!!)