Guess that critter!

Hint: it's not Mickey!

Two nights ago I was awakened by a noise in the front room. I went out to investigate, but found nothing. Figuring someone had walked past the open window with heavy boots, I went back to bed. Imagine my surprise when the next afternoon I discovered that something had nibbled my $2.79 per pound Jazz (tm) apples in the fruit bowl on the table!

This has happened once before, in 2010 -- at the time, I accused my houseguest of importing a foreign mouse into my apartment. Immediately I went out and bought two kinds of traps: the traditional "I'll snap you in two" trap and the humane live trap. The critter could decide which one he'd rather nibble from. The spring trap was tripped one night but nothing was caught. Whatever it was got a little bolder and nibbled some Zotter Matcha drinking chocolate. But the disturbances didn't last, and I figured s/he just got bored with the offerings in my apartment.

 Last night I awoke to a crash -- dreading what I might find, I peered into what passes for a dining room in my third story 1-bedroom flat. A small glass bud vase had toppled from a shelf, and took a piece out of a larger flower vase below. Whatever it is is herbivorous, preferring apples and house plants to peanut butter in the spring trap. It also jumped onto the shelf, a distance of 2-3 feet. I'm not convinced it's a mouse... other suggestions are "that rodent bigger than a mouse" (I don't dare write it out, 'cos my murophobic dad reads my blog), a squirrel, a bunny, an escaped ferret or the ever popular "nootria" (the one that lives in the garbage disposal and eats leftover pizza).

 Any other suggestions? I'm going to have my camera ready tonight -- and a list of symptoms for bubonic plague and the hantavirus bookmarked on my computer!