Oh! Speaking of rodents, I read this today:
I wish I had known not everyone thinks mice are as cute as I do.
I grew up an animal-loving peacenik, be it rat, cat, dog, frog, or snake. So when one afternoon, shortly into my first semester, a tiny brown mouse poked his dark button nose into my dorm room, I smiled. My roommate shrieked.
College was the first time that my life was bereft of creatures great and small. In my mind, it lent a certain warmth to the place knowing that in the cold, cement confines of a high-rise dormitory an adorably furry mouse was scampering about.
I left cookies on the carpet for him every morning for a week, delighting to find on my return from class that only crumbs remained. I didn't see anything wrong with my charity, and I figured as long as our food was out of the little guy's reach, what was the harm?
Not surprisingly, my roommate didn't share my adoration for sweet-faced rodents. At the behest of her disgusted mother, maintenance men placed two snap traps in our room. When I discovered the traps one evening, I threw them away.
After a night of squabbling, my roommate and I struck a compromise: We bought a humane, no-kill trap.
By then, the mouse was gone, leaving the cookies untouched. But my roommate and I became better friends for it.
Like me, you'll learn the important art of finding middle ground with your roommate. Because the things you consider normal may not be for others.