Little Mouse

(Mom, maybe you shouldn't read this. I fear you may freak out a little.)

When Sydney and I came back from visiting my friend and her new baby yesterday afternoon, we came across a mouse wasteland. There were 3 dead babies outside our back door and one still struggling to live in a crevice in the concrete. I was so sad about the baby mice, but didn't know what to do, so we came inside and I thought sad thoughts about the last one.

When Nick came home and I asked if he could move them, he reported that there was a little guy still alive out there, nudging his brothers and sisters. Sure enough, when Sydney and I went out to peek, there was a little mouse all snuggled up with his dead sibling, trying to get warm.

We sprang into action without really talking about whether we really needed to save the mouse or if we could. Perhaps we have watched too much Disney. We decided to build the guy a little nest and not touch him so his mama would want him back and we thought we'd stick peanut butter in his new fort. Sydney was so excited about the mouse and wanted to hold him and kept yelling "hi" as though he was a deaf mouse. Before I knew it, Nick had the little guy in his hand and he was burrowing a warm spot in Nick's big paw. We were hooked. We remembered that newborns of any kind need to stay extra warm, so we got a box (an upgrade from the empty plant container), filled it with grass clippings and put it in front of a space heater (how do you spell fire hazard?) on the sun porch.

We thought he might need food before rest, so we put some warm milk in a syringe and fed him a bit. so cute! He kept licking the milk off Nick's hand and then running back to his little spot. Then we put a beer cap of milk in his little nest so he could get more in the night.

Nick stayed up late working and checked on the little guy in the middle of the night. He slept on the couch, which he said he did because it was so late and he didn't want to wake me, but I think perhaps he wanted to keep an eye on our buddy.

I awoke this morning wanting to take his picture and thinking of how we could keep him as a pet, since we all were so attached to him. But, sadly, when Nick went to peek on our little mouse after making coffee, he was gone. It's probably for the best since I'm fairly sure a mouse is not a great house pet, but I'm still a little sad.

I hear Sydney waking up and I am hoping she's forgotten about her furry little friend. I think we got a glimpse of Sydney as a sibling in our save-the-baby-mouse efforts. She was so excited about the mouse and kept saying hi and waving and wanting to touch him, but once Nick and I were both focused on figuring out how to keep him warm and how to feed him, she started being a wee bit naughty and wanting everyone to hold her, including the mouse.

Godspeed little mouse!