Hard and soft.

So...the mice are taking the biscuit literally! We have not caught anything in days but something keeps taking the bait from the rat trap without tripping it! The skitterings continue both day and night but they somehow avoid the traps. Today I decided it was no more Mr Nice Mice Guy and I set more traps.... the lethal kind...and would you believe it 5 minutes later I caught one...but in one of the humane traps. I knew it was the sneaky rat trap stealing mouse getting it's comeuppance. It lived to sneak another day as we released it at the dump on a 'dump' trip. We came back to find another unlucky mouse dead in one of the lethal traps.Isis, our new white chicken is not well. She started looking unwell yesterday afternoon not long after she arrived but this morning was worse and as the day has gone on she has deteriorated. When Will came home from cheese making he mixed a 'tea' of garlic, honey and cider vinegar and 'forced' it down her. She is now in a box by the fire, still breathing but we don't expect her to survive the night. It is very sad... She is only a little white chicken that I met yesterday and yet even though I caused the death of a mouse today it has been hard to see little Isis struggling for breath."If she lives" I said to Will, " we can never eat her.""I never eat the hens," said Will, "only the cockerels."The other two look fine. They ventured out briefly into their pen but soon went back into the safety of the shed. It will take time to get used to their new home I suppose.The neighbours are back so no more pig feeding for a while. One day it will be salami..."Throw that dead mouse to the chooks," said Will, when I came out with my tiny victim, " they will love it. Is it dead?"It was ... but it's eyes were open. Life and death...I started off resolving to be harder but I am just a softie!