Mouses in houses in Vermont

Dear Henry Albert,

Robby and Jeanine live in an old farm house (175 years old. Built in 1832.) on Turkey Creek Road in Jamaica, Vermont. The house is nice but they got mice. (see mouses below)
Mice can be a problem. They eat stuff, like shoes or boxes of food or other stuff. They also carry germs and make poops all over the place.

How would you like open a box of Oat Bran or Rice Puffs or Corn Flakes and find mouse poops in it?
Mouses or mice or mices are a kind of Varmint. “"Varmint" is an American English colloquialism. The term applies to foxes, coyotes, burrowing animals, rats, mice, and cockroaches and other stuff.

Luckily, Robby and Jeanine’s ancestors were ferocious hunters. So they knew what to do.

Robby’s Great-great-great grandfather, (“Shlomo the Scruncher”) was a renowned Mouse Scruncher in Eastern Poland (which may have been Russia or something else at the time.)

Jeanine’s ancestors came from Canada. Some were famous mouse trappers. They collected pelts. One ancestor holds the record for trapping a 43 pound mouse.

So, they got mouse traps. The mouse trap was invented by Murray. No-one knows his last name because he became very rich and everybody called him Murray-Mouse-Trap. (Hyphenated names were popular at the time.) They put peanut butter or cheese in the mouse traps to attract the mice. Mice like cheese and peanut butter (especially the crunchy kind). It is bad to smell like cheese or crunchy peanut butter if are near mice.

The State Bird of Vermont is the Hermit Thrush. I thought it was the Turkey.
It is good that you live on the 8th floor at 2 Horatio Street because mice don’t like to climb a lot of stairs especially since one elevator doesn’t work.

One day you and Mommy and Daddy will go to Vermont to visit Cousins Jeanine and Robby. But remember, make sure you don’t smell like cheese or crunchy peanut butter.