Mouse update ...

Poststructural Pub
1

I haven’t cleared this with Dale, but it’s my understanding that I’m allowed to post periodic mouse updates as long as I don’t make competitive statements (like “my mouse is better than Mack Hoover’s mouse”).

If you’ll remember, sometime last year, I had to catch Ralph II and release him to the wide, wide world because it became apparent that he was no longer the sole and solitary mouse in the house, which is one of the mouse rules in this household. It was a sad day around here, I must say, though my heartbreak was softened by Bloomfield’s touching eulogy and the notes of the poignant slow air CSkinner composed in Ralph’s honor.

Ralph II was the archtypal, legendary, prototypical mouse, upon whom the image of the Global Pennywhistle Tweaking Research and Production Consortium Headquarters was founded and after whom our now world-famous logo is modeled.

There could be no better mouse than Ralph. He was cute (as deermice are, with huge, liquid eyes, tan back and white vest and paws), companionable (he would hang out under my desk for hours at a time as I worked into the night tweaking whistles), and he was dependable, always showing up for work at the same time every evening.

When I caught him and let him go in the woods, he stuck his nose out of the micecube humane trap and then drew back and pondered. Then he did it again before finally, slowly venturing out. He sat there on the forest floor and looked up at me as if to say, “Are you sure this is right?” Then, slowly, he wandered off into the woods.

After Ralph, came Gus (the children named these mice, after a mouse in a book and one in Disney’s Cinderella).

Gus wasn’t cute. He was a meadow mouse (vole), and meadow mice are not cute. Deermice are cute. But Gus showed great potential. He was the only mouse we ever had who would work two shifts, showing up predictably around noon and then again around ten or eleven at night.

And he would hang out and make eye contact, which is always an admirable trait in a mouse. (Ralph I, who was also a meadow mouse, would also do this.) Gus was so tame, he would stay and let the children come into the office to watch him without running away.

Sadly, however, I made a thoughtless blunder and offended Gus’s refined sensibilities so deeply, he left after only a short time and never came back. I played a recording of banjo music in the office, and it drove the poor creature out.

Eventually, another mouse arrived, a deer mouse again. By now, I had become inured to the whole mouse idea and didn’t pay much attention. I fed the mouse more or less daily from the sunflower seeds, still not used up, that Nanohedron had sent for Ralph II, mainly just to keep him in my office and out of the pantry, but I never came to think of him as a true member of the firm. This attitude of mine was abetted by the fact that this present mouse is the most secretive mouse we’ve had here so far. I see him, but only in transit. He doesn’t visit like the two Ralphs and Gus did.

However, he’s been here all winter, and now he’s grown on me to the point that I’ve given him an official name. He is Mouse. That seems apt, because he’s such a generic mouse. But he’s the Mouse of the Day, the Only Mouse in the House, and Mouse he is.

The breakthrough, which brought it home to me that Mouse really is part of the Global Pennywhistle Tweaking Research and Production Consortium Headquarters family, occured about two weeks ago when I was cleaning out the office closet. I was gathering some things from the closet floor when I discovered a pair of shoes I hadn’t worn for about ten years. I thought, “I’ll give these to the thrift shop,” and picked one up. Out popped Mouse and scurried off. I looked inside, and there was a little mouse nest. A WARM little mouse nest. Made of dryer lint and …




… my whiskers.

It seems, Mouse had spent the whole winter scurrying under my desk, rescuing every whisker that fell from my beard.

(To view the only existant, current photograph of my whiskers, click here:
http://www.bigwhistle.co.uk/maker.asp .)

With my best wishes to all, and heartfelt thanks for your encouragement and support,

Jerry

2

http://www.bigwhistle.co.uk/maker.asp

Nice pic Jerry.

3

Jerry

I share your mousie inclinations. They are the cutest little things and its so hard to catch them…especially in a TRAP!!! Horrors!

We currently have Atom and I do believe Mrs. Atom and they have been here all winter. They are tiny and of course adorable.They are both the nerviest little interlopers, or squatters if you will. Atom just breezes into my bedroom when I am practicing or reading and just sits there and looks at me like “there is nothing worth eating in this house”. This of course guilts me into making sure there are Cheezits and assorted goodies in special spots for Atom and the Mrs. And maybe all their relatives! I don’t know at this point exactly how many there REALLY are. But I swear, nothing fazes them. I can be working anywhere in the house and there they are. Atom was busy constucting SOMETHING behind my counter the other day and the fact that I was right there didn’t deter him from making all the racket he could manage in his little way!

Atom and the Mrs are of course adorable. My husband says we need to trap them. I said..good you go buy the traps. He have me this “not me!” look! Then he said well lets get those humane traps and we can let them loose outside. But then it got cold and they are used to the warm house and three square meals a day…sooo…we still haven’t got the traps. We keep “meaning to” HA!! They will be here until they decide to leave of their own accord!!

I admire your fondness for your little visiters!!

4

Mouse stories? I killed a mouse with my sewing machine.
I recall a mouse in my laundry room. I had no fondness for him as he was a shifty little guy that only scurried across the room when you were facing the other way. Not a friendly sort. I had a trap, but my husband was away for a week so I decided to leave the “mouse removal” until he got back.
So I closed the door, stuffed the space under the door with various rags etc just to ensure that he remained in the laundry room while hubby was away.
A couple of days later I had to sneak in there to get my sewing machine, kept in a vinyl bag when not in use and when I was done I quickly opened the door and slipped it back inside on the floor, slammed the door again and restuffed it.
Weeks later, still no mouse in our mouse trap…but (OK, this is the gorry part) the next time I had a sewing project, there under the machine was the mouse. What a way to go. I still feel a little guilty about that.

5

Remember all those fairy tales where mice come in at night and finish the work of the cobbler/tailor/carpenter because he was always kind to them?
Mouse is doing the clean-up for now. Later he’ll take to tweaking whistles…

6

Wow! A picture of Jerry! :slight_smile:

When my cats, Luna and Sola, torment mice, I save them and being them outside. There was this one last year that stood out. Luna was trying to torment it, but it stood up on its back feet and talked right back to her. It earned respect! Luna grabbed it in her mouth. I ran to get a paper back and picked up Luna and mouse, telling her to drop it. She did. I brought it outside and I hope it is still enjoying its life.

:slight_smile:

(But we do find dead ones every now and then.)

7

Just FYI:

Deer Mouse

Meadow Mouse

Mighty Mouse

8

Warning: e. e. cummings alert!


here's a little mouse)and
what does he think about, i
wonder as over this
floor(quietly with

bright eyes)drifts(nobody
can tell because
Nobody knows, or why
jerks Here &, here,
gr(oo)ving the room's Silence)this like
a littlest
poem a
(with wee ears and see?

tail frisks)
(gonE)
"mouse",
We are not the same, you and
1, s1nce here's a little he
or is
it It
?    (or was it something we saw in the mirror)?

therefore we'll kiss;for maybe
what was Disappeared
into ourselves
who     (look).       ,startled

Sorry I can’t figure out how to keep words in odd spots; for instance, “gonE” should have been well off to the right in its own line (for one), but when I preview or post, these positions are defaulted immediately to the left margin. sigh Takes away from the beauty of it. But there you go.

9

Here’s a shot of the rare-but-famous Gobi hovermouse that my partner Robin Casady caught on film:

(Robin has a few other odd shots at http://www.robincasady.com/Photo/composites.html )

10

I saved a deer mouse from my cat once when she was silly enough to chase it onto the porch (I put a bowl over it, slipped a magazine under, and dumped it back outside while it looked at me offendedly).

I’m sure she’s eaten plenty more while I wasn’t looking though.

11

Stop reading here if you’re squeamish. :astonished:

Shifting a bit from mouse to cat…

Based on about 50-years of experience with cats (though never more than seven at a time), they seem to attack and kill mainly on the basis of movement. Animals that struggle get killed pretty quickly, while those that play possum may end up being ignored long enough for them to get away. (And cats ignore possums even when they are moving around.)

My last family of cats killed lots of large lizards, which tend to wriggle and struggle when caught, even though they never ate them. On the other hand, they released a variety of mice and birds in the house, many with no detectable injuries, and most of the mice got a little ride out into the country. I’m sure I’ve transported at least 20-30 mice over the past 15 years.

Gophers tended to get eaten (every bit–bones, claws, teeth, tail, etc.–except for a small, round, greenish organ I took to be the gall bladder, which they liked to leave lying around for me to step on), and the only one I actually saw getting caught did struggle.

What really made it clear about fighting back being a bad idea with cats was when one of them brought in a weasel that was almost torn in half. It had obviously put up a serious fight–and paid the price. I couldn’t find a single bite on the cat–which wasn’t particularly large and had short fur, but the weasel had its back broken and the middle of its body ripped open.

Because they’re such efficient killers, imported cats have wreaked serious havoc on previously isolated animal populations–especially on islands. I saw a bit of a show on the Animal Planet network a couple of days ago in which a standard model cat that seemed to be suffering from severe heat exhaustion while treking across some desert (Australia?) killed a good-sized and agressive viper (much like a sidewinder, but no rattle) almost casually. A mongoose generally can’t kill a rattlesnake, but a house kitty can.

12

Geez, Darwin, you’re scaring Mouse!

Mouse, just remember to play dead if the unthinkable happens. I’ve seen many a mouse escape that way. It’s true.

13

Mouse has a message for you, Nano.

Thanks for the heads up, man. I’m lucky to be here, since Arleen’s allergic to cats. It’s just about the best situation a mouse could want. However, if I ever have to pick up and move house, I’ll remember what you said!

14

No prob. Say, how’re the seeds doing for you?

15

[Mouse]These sunflower seeds are perfect, Nano. They’re just the right size for stashing in all my secret places (don’t tell Jerry), and they’re delicious.[/Mouse]

16

Cool. Got enough?

17

[Mouse]Funny you should ask, Nano.

Jerry tells me he just used the last of the seeds you sent for Ralph. I never met Ralph, but everyone around here (don’t say anything to Jerry; he thinks I’m the only one) tells me Ralph was one mouse in a million, which must mean he’s the greatest mouse in all of Orwell![/mouse]

18

A new batch of sunflower kernels will be there on Monday, then. Got to keep the Consortium running smoothly, and the resident mouse de tuique is not the least of its parts!

But don’t be intimidated by Ralph’s reputation. He couldn’t fill your shoes, either. Oh, that’s right. You don’t wear shoes. You sleep in them. Umm…whatever.

19

[Mouse]Nano! Nano! The sunflower seeds are here! I never saw so many sunflower seeds in my life! I’m going to hide some in Tania’s boot tonight! She left it on its side and I can go inside! Yay! Thank you! Squeak![/Mouse]

20

Y’know,

I’ve been puzzling this mouse/shoe thing. I find sunflower seeds stashed in different places, but the favorite, by far, is shoes. And, of course, Mouse went to the trouble to build an elaborate nest in one of mine.

I’m guessing that a mouse feels most secure in a place where he thinks he’ll be hard to find.

The other day, I ran into Hershey, the chocolate lab who lives up the hill and has the run of Orwell. I greeted him and patted him a few times before going on my way. I stroked my beard as I was walking. Hmmm. There’s a familiar smell. Fish! (Salmon, actually.) Hershey had apparently gone to considerable trouble to locate and apply a generous spritzing of fish perfume. Why do dogs do this? To cover their own scent.

Why does Mouse sleep in a shoe? Because a shoe smells more strongly of something besides mouse than any other thing in the house. He becomes invisible (and safe) in his warm bed if he sleeps in a shoe!

Best wishes,
Jerry