Help! Dead mouth in a hoarders room... Oh the smell...

[Sparklfairy]

A friend of mine has got a mouse, he thinks the cat brought it in and let it loose. He's twatted about sorting it, buying traps and not setting them up, then setting them up but them not going off, so resorted to poison. I don't agree with this, I think it's cruel but I also pointed out that the mouse then wanders off and dies somewhere else in the house!

Naturally, he ignored me and now his office has the most horrific smell. He has a huge house (lives alone) that is kept relatively tidy, and he has a cleaner, but his office is his man cave and looks like a teenagers bedroom. Stuff everywhere, all over the floor, he thinks it's a charming kind of organised chaos but now it's come to bite him in the arse as that mouse could be anywhere.

He wants me to help look for it. I can't bear the smell (especially in this heat!) And really don't want to! I can't think of anything I'd rather do less today!

Wwyd?

not envy!

Most mouse poisons are supposed to do something to cause the corpse to smell less. Maybe it's bigger than a mouse, OP...

PPs - I said maybe I should have lied said he was a woman to avoid irrelevant questions about whether we're together!

Friend is a man. We have never shagged. I really don't see how it makes a difference as to whether I should help

Excellent point @namechange5575

Just hazarding a wild guess here ... but you don't imagine it may be anything to do with male entitlement & female compliance-conditioning, do you?

What would I do?

I would say "no".

Either do it or say no.
Your decision whether to help or not.
His problem.
I would not. Not in ‘man cave’ with crap everywhere. His mess. He sounds needy ?

We have never shagged. I really don't see how it makes a difference as to whether I should help Nice one, OP!

I'd suggest this is the perfect time for a clear out and deep clean of his study. If there's food left around this won't be the last mouse and probably isn't the first. It's not a lone dessicated mouse he needs to worry about, it's mice!

@ReanimatedSGB Christ!

@NoTheresa the office is the exception. It really is a dumping ground for all his shit. You can't walk in without stepping over crap and can barely see the floor. Rest of the house isn't like that. He closes the door on it and contains his organised chaos to one room and a mouse

Are you sure it was a mouse not rat? Mice don’t usually smell that much, and certainly not for very long. Rats on the other hand...

However the smell will go after a few weeks so I’d just leave him to it!

No where has the op said the friend is a woman, where are people getting that from?

Anyway. I have a summer house, the cat can get in through a cat flap. I went in and there was a bit of a whiff but I was only getting something quickly so I ignored it. Later in the year I moved some furniture and found the crispy remains of a mouse. Had I not moved the furniture I wouldn’t have known it was there.

He must be laying some pretty good pipe for OP to volunteer for such a task!

This is my phrase of the day. I'm stealing it.

Say no. And then no again, if he doesn't get it. That's some weird dynamics, I agree with PP.

The smell doesn't last long. I've had the occasional mouse brought in by the cat, which got away. I try to catch them and put them back outside but can't always find. They generally die and, as I said, the smell doesn't last long because mice aren't very big, there's not a lot in them.

I have used a humane mouse trap and it worked, I was able to release the poor creature back into the wild, near the shed at the bottom of the garden.

I think whether the friend is male or female matters. I think a woman would be less likely to ask this of another woman! And I doubt another woman would be hinting that they're to far too busy to find a decomposing rodent in their own house!

YADNBU...

Mice don’t usually smell that much oh yes they do!
Our delightful cats often bring in little rodents. We had one die in my DHs office and the smell permeated the entire house until we found it. It was tiny! We also had a rat die and decompose in our chimney one year, that was 🤢

Says he spent an hour looking for it and can't find it, works long hours and hasn't got time to deal with it blah blah.

That would mean a "no" from me. To insinuate that your time is less valuable than his would get my back up. If it's an issue for him he needs to make it a priority, and give up some time for it. Or pay for a professional (would the cleaner be able to do it for extra pay?).

I just hope it wasn`t pregnant.
They will be all over the place.

Sorry but his mess; let him clear it up. Why is this even an issue?

And the 'just in one room'. The mouse got in somewhere. More mice can do it too. And then they can get out again and into the rest of the tidy clean house.

His problem, he deals with it or lives with the consequences.

There is always the possibility that he could take everything out of the room and then discover that the body is under the floor boards. I have very few friends that I care for enough to help them find a stinking rodent corpse.

A cat won’t touch a manky mouse, a dog might but you can’t risk that if there’s poison involved.

I’m a sucker so probably would help if asked, dab of vicks vapour rub under each nostril, face masks and gloves would be more than sufficient, but you’re definitely under no obligation. Although I’d probably help I definitely would never ask someone who didn’t live in the same house.

Dead mice don’t smell, it sounds more like a rat if the smell is that bad.

Dead mice don’t smell

They most certainly do.

How could any dead animal not smell?

Anyway OP, just leave him to it, not your problem.

PPs saying it's more likely a rat; do you really think so?! Surely in this heat (and the office does get particularly hot due to it's position) anything would start to really smell?

PPs saying it's more likely a rat; do you really think so?!

It doesn't matter. You're not going in - are you ?