On Friday night I was in our basement peacefully watching a Christmas concert on TV when I heard some squeaking sounds. As I glanced over in the direction of the sounds, to my horror, I saw a black mouse run across the floor in our storage room. "Ahhh!" Jon came running down the stairs, and when I told him what had made me scream, he said that kind of scream should be reserved for a life-threatening medical emergency. To me, a mouse in our house is an emergency. Though maybe not life threatening...
He asked me what the word was for fear of mice. I think it was a rhetorical question, but I looked it up on line anyway. It's musophobia. He asked why I was so scared of a little mouse, and I tried to explain that it may not be the little four-legged creature itself that scares me so much, but rather what seeing one in my house represents. For one thing, it shattered my false sense of living in a mouse-proof-house. For another thing, I can only imagine why I heard that mouse squeaking. Was it talking to itself? I doubt it.
Finally, to the purpose of this post: Is musophobia contagious? Well, this is by no means a scientific study, but I hypothesize that musophobia can, indeed, be spread from person to person. Later that evening, I sent Jon out to buy 12 mouse traps (I requested a minimum of six and was thrilled when he came home with more). We agreed that if I would set them (to Jon, those spring traps are a bit unnerving to set), he would place them strategically (to me, they're even more unnerving to place). We set four that first night. We went into the storage room together, but after the first two, Jon quickly started to walk out. As soon as I saw him move, I started running. Apparently he'd gotten the heebeejeebees when he heard some crawling around in the corner. He wasn't too pleased with my running, and made me go upstairs so that I wouldn't freak him out. When I came back down, I asked if he'd placed the last two traps in the back corner of the room as we'd planned. Nope. He'd put one on each side of the door to stand as sentinels.
I asked (rhetorically of course) if he might have musophobia as well. "Well, if I do, you gave it to me," he replied.
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6 comments:
I think it's contagious...I know I can pass along a freak out to Kev. Especially about spiders or centipedes!
That is a funny story! I love hearing your thoughts, Christy. It makes me miss you too bad though! I agree with you and think it is totally contagious!
PS- Can you send me your address for my Christmas card list? Thanks so much!
I HATE mice! We kept getting them in our old apartment and I would always pray when Greg was out of town that we wouldn't have any mice until Greg got home and could take care of them. (As if Heavenly Father doesn't have better things to worry about...)
I agree with Megan about missing you too much and needing your address for a Christmas card. I know you're just dying for one and your Christmas won't be complete without it. You can email it to me at princessnat@yahoo.com or leave a comment on my blog and I will delete it before anyone else sees it. Thanks love!
you are hilarious!! hope it was only one mouse?? maybe, hope for the best right! we miss you!
Gross! We had a bout with a rat earlier this summer. It was so nasty. I made Lynn do all of the dirty work and we finally got rid of it. Good luck! Merry Christmas! your boys are getting super cute!
I definitely have musophobia. Just hearing your story made me cringe inside. We had mice in our house in Utah and I hated the thought of them being in our house. I only saw one but I know there were definitely more. Good luck and I hope you are mouse free in no time.
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