Someone in our circle (who shall go nameless), in an attempt at being thoughtful, brought a present for Honey last week: a live mouse, intended as food for a snake or a toy for a mousing dog. But while she kills a wild mouse in a second, Honey only wanted to play with the little mouse presented to her; it was like a little live squeaky toy. We thought this cruel for the poor little mouse, so soon the mouse went into the dogs' travel crate, to protect it. But soon after, it escaped. We thought it was in the house, until the dogs told us it was in the basket of the paper shredder. I had to look three times, but indeed, there he was! He was happy to have me pick him up and stroke his little forehead.
I put the mouse outside in the yard, hoping it would run away, until my Dad pointed out that 4 hours later, the mouse had moved no more than 6 inches, and would soon starve or be eaten by the critters.
Sigh....
The next day, I brought home a glass aquarium, metal treadmill and food pellets for the little guy, whom I named Stuart, as in Stuart Little. Didn't you read that book back in the day??
It's very very hard to photograph a mouse, let me tell you. But here we go; let me present Stuart Little, a little grey mouse with white saddle:
My Mom is in love with this little mouse, and she coos over him and loves to feed him treats by hand and pet him; she cleans his house daily and then watches him groom himself from head to tail; she says he is "the cutest pet ever." Meanwhile the dogs now love to watch Stuart through the glass, no touching though....
Dear Stuart brings back fond memories of our pet rat Roquefort. Ah but she loved to chew.
ReplyDeleteHe is a delight I'm sure.