Cheese It

It’s widely thought that mice love cheese. That really isn’t true.
They eat it when they’re starving; that’s when anything will do.
In general, its pungent smell does not appeal to mice.
To put it in a mousetrap is to follow bad advice.

Instead, they’re more attracted by the smell of something sweet,
Though owners should reserve the grains and sugar for a treat,
With fresher fruits and vegetables and pellets for nutrition.
With that in mind, where did we get the cheesy mouse tradition?

It seems in prior centuries, before the dawn of fridges,
The mice could enter bags of grain but only stole in smidges,
While bite marks in a wheel of cheese were harder to ignore.
(The meat was more secure, as folks would hang it off the floor.)

The other possibility pertains to cheese appearance:
A drawing of a triangle with holes allows coherence
Without too much complexity. Cartoonists like the ease,
When tasked with showing mousy meals, of doing so with cheese.