who we are

Robert W. Fornal is the owner and inventor of Mouse Depot. He was born and raised in Meriden Connecticut, entered the Marines, married and raised five children. He moved to Massachusetts in 1983 and worked in a number of lumberyards. His other interests were running, biking and a great love of animals. It was his love of animals that motivated him to create and patent The Mouse Depot.

Violet Fornal met Bob in 1990. They shared interests in walking, biking and the love of animals. Bob shared his ideas and excitement about The Mouse Depot with Violet and they embarked on a business partnership. Violet runs the office, does the ordering, computer work and the administrative tasks. She is the voice on the other end of the phone when you call The Mouse Depot.

How was The Mouse Depot conceived?

A cabinetmaker by profession, Bob has spent many evenings in his shop starting and finishing up jobs. One late night he noticed a visitor watching him. It wasn't clear how long the mouse had been watching, but he (or she) certainly was fascinated by the art of Bob's carpentry. Bob also thought the mouse was certainly as cute as he was curious. Since the mouse came back a few nights later, Bob decided to offer-up some snacks so it wouldn't go hungry. Bob tried cheese, the mouse wasn't impressed. Bob tried hamburger and pepperoni with no results. Someone suggested peanut butter and that turned out to be the mouse's favorite. So while the mouse was enjoying the peanut butter snacks, Bob kept building cabinets.

Since none of Bob's friends believed his stories about his visitor, Bob thought maybe capturing the mouse to show him to his friends and then keeping it as a pet or releasing it, would permit him to prove to his friends he wasn't telling a fib. So Bob wanted to capture his friend, show him off and then release him without harming it.

He took a 4x4x8 block of wood, routered out the inside and made an enclosure out of it to see if the mouse would enter. No luck, the mouse stayed away. A few months later he modified the design by adding an elaborate grate to one end of the wooden enclosure, installing a hinged "trap-door" and changing the opening. Years passed, one thing led to another, a number of different designs evolved and The Mouse Depot was born. The wooden-block design evolved into an injection molded plastic body, a patent was granted to Bob for a NEW and BETTER mouse trap. The original visitor disappeared or moved away, but his family members and descendants must still be reminiscing about the Cape Cod carpenter who served peanut butter and created a safe mouse trap so even mice that were captured in undesirable locations, could be relocated to places where they were welcome. It all started with a single cute and curious mouse and evolved into an entire business allowing mice to be released with no harm and to the entertainment of thousands of happy kids and parents.

Life has happy endings and there IS A BETTER MOUSE TRAP out there, and its called The Mouse Depot and available from us. Please see our order page for details.

Who thinks The Mouse Depot really is a better mouse trap?

The United States Government Patent Office thinks it is and therefore it granted it Patent Number:5,299,380 on April 5, 1994.