Of Mice and Me

Mouse-Eye View of my live trap

Here's a cool thing - 31 Days of Adventure. In this post I've combined the 1st & 2nd days' prompts - take a picture from an unusual angle and notice the little things. GREAT! I've been wanting to tell the world about the most amazing mouse. So here it is.

I live rurally in a very old house which will never be mouse proof. I simply share this space with the critters of the North Country. But I draw the line when they start eating my food, leaving deposits and scratching in the walls. Early on, I used the cheap traps. My husband would set them, since I was sure I'd lose a finger doing it. But I was the first one downstairs in the morning and sometimes, the poor mouse would only be partially nabbed, dragging itself across the room to die. I hated it. So I started buying more expensive UBER efficient, you-don't-see-the-dead-little-body traps. They were supposed to be throw-aways but I would eek 4 or 5 uses out of them, turning my head as I unsprung the trap over the garbage can, then taking a peek to see what a smooshed mouse looks like. I thought this was the right thing to do. I considered it nicer than my neighbor's way: rigging a bucket of water so they fall in and drown. I don't like that much. 

Then I realized I really don't like killing them at all. Plus I kept having to buy the darn traps. A-HA! Buy a  live trap! Every morning I walk in the woods so I could release them then. So that's what I've been doing. Then I wondered how far from the house they have to be let out. So I put red nail polish on one mouse's tail so I could see if it would come back. (Then I worried I killed it with the toxicity.) One cold morning I set a trapped mouse on the porch for an hour before my walk. In that time it died. Maybe it froze. So there I was, cuddling it in my mittens as I walked into the woods, trying to revive it. I felt awful. I laid it in a pretty, mossy spot and told it I was sorry. I didn't set the trap for a few days after that. 

I catch mice maybe every other day. I would stare into the cage, trying to notice markings, characteristics, something distinct. Some seemed smaller, others more intent on cleaning themselves, some sticking their little pink noses out the holes. One day, I found a great spot under a tree to release an especially cute little feller. I opened the door and it bounded over a boulder that held a stack of smaller rocks. I watched it go. And then the most amazing thing happened - it came back onto the top of the stack and looked at me. Just for a second. Then it was gone. I couldn't believe my eyes. Suddenly I felt connected to everything around me - the snow was sparkling in the sun, the bare trees spectacular, shadows dancing, beech leaves whispering. Holy smokes, was I connected!!

(Here's a preliminary sketch - the tree on the left is all wrong so the final drawing will be different.)

I put the trap away for a week, kind of my Christmas present to the mice in the neighborhood.
But tonight it's set again and who knows what joy or pain it will bring? What a gift to have such a memory to remind me to pay attention, look around as I walk and notice how beautiful the world is. Thank-you, little mouse.