OT: Farewell to Ralph II ...

Whistle
1

Well, I had to catch Ralph.

It wasn’t his fault. Ralph is a very well behaved mouse. The problem was, a couple of days ago, I saw another mouse. Since I can only keep one wild mouse in the house at a time, that meant I had to catch both mice.

I got one of those MiceCubes Cranberry recommended, removed the remaining sunflower seeds from the peanut butter jar lid that was Ralph’s feeding bowl, and set up the MiceCube.

Right on schedule, Ralph showed up. He looked all over the bin lid that serves as his tray, trying to figure out what happened to his food. Then he zeroed in on the peanut butter jar lid and nosed it around the tray. Finally, he picked up the edge of the lid with his paws and looked under it. (Indescribably cute!)

I left the room for about half an hour, and when I came back, Ralph was in the MiceCube. So I showed him to the children and then got in the car and drove him to the woods where I had released Ralph I.

When I got to the little clearing, I set down the MiceCube so the trap door would be open and Ralph could go out. He was ambivilent. Stuck the end of his nose out and sniffed. Then backed up a little bit and sat there thinking. Stuck the end of his nose out again and sniffed some more. Backed up and thought some more. Then he slowly walked out of the MiceCube and sat in the clearing. He looked up at me like, “Are you sure this is alright?” Then he slowly wandered off, stopping frequently before finally going into some underbrush.

Then I went home and set up the MiceCube again. Within half an hour, the other mouse was inside. I took him to the woods, set down the cube with the door open and he bolted out of it like lightning and ran away. Definitely not Ralph.

Both were deermice, btw.

I left sunflower seeds out overnight, but they’re still there. No mouse. I’m sure, before long, Ralph III will show up to pick up where Ralph II left off. But in the meantime, I miss him.

Best wishes,
Jerry

2

http://www.hantavirus.net/index.html

Sorry, I know Ralph is cute, but his urine and feces (and bite!) can carry fatal disease. They’re a lot better off away from your home, and you are too.

I have morbid fascination with emerging diseases. . .all puns intended…and specifically with diseases associated with local wildlife, including hantavirus and tularemia, two really neat, often fatal diseases.

3

I still think all these diseases and drug names sound like elves.

Tularemia the Evening Star, daughter of Hantavirus the Bold. She is lost to us forever and we shall never see her like again on Middle Earth. Sigh.

Let’s have a party to drown our sorrows.

4

No life down, no life up.
No mould–no wine, no cheese, no bread.

No rodents’ bites, no Shaw block tweak? :sniffle:

5

Tyghress,

Of course, I’ve researched the hantavirus thing. If it were more than a very remote risk here in New York, considering that there are millions of deer mice here and millions of people living in mouse-infested housing (which this is not) there would be more than the extremely small number of cases that have ever occurred here.

If hantavirus is going to get me, it will be from breathing dust in the barn or from cleaning out the used mobile homes I buy, renovate and resell for my main business, not from a mouse in the house. This is a clean house with only one mouse who is (was) systematically kept away from the pantry. If this were Colorado, I would have a different point of view, but it’s not.

Again, thank you for your concern, but the alarmism is unjustified in this situation and more of an annoyance that a help.

Best wishes,
Jerry

6

Careful Jerry, you’re going to get a “love 'em and leave 'em” reputation among the local mice. I can hear Ralph already “there I was, livin large, eating peanut butter and sunflower seeds , next thing ya know I’m in Cow Flop City”.

7

It’s all part of Jerry’s higher education program for mice. He sends them back out into the marketplace, so to squeak, to benefit their fellow mice with leadership, cunning, and all that a broader world view affords. :sunglasses:

8

Jeez Jerry I always pictured Ralph sitting on a little chair with his feet up on a foot stool (both chair and stool red and victorian) reading a tiny little book (Galivers Travels I think) sipping brandy and thinking good thoughts.
Not some kinda disease carring rodent attempting to displace mankind. Well he will be happy where ever he is and I hope you have his room ready for Ralph III :slight_smile:

Tom

9

He’s a dapper little fellow. White waistcoat, white gloves and spats, sleek brown fur jacket.

10

Your experience of releasing Ralph reminded me of the three orphaned opossoms I raised while working as a vet tech. I was the one who always took home the baby ''critters" to raise.

When the time came to send them on their way, we walked way back in the woods, up a “holler” at the base of Sourwood Mountain(namesake of the bluegrass tune), back in the middle of nowhere. They slowly came out of the crate, checked out the small stream that ran out of the hollow, and wandered around a bit, then Poof! they were gone.

11

Jerry, I can tell that this is a rough time for you. It’s all right. Cheer up, and relax a bit.

12

I remember Ralph.

I first heard about Ralph from the elves. They had mixed feeling about Ralph at first. He was a stranger, and the elves had not yet seen his sterling character. But mixed feelings quickly turned into mixed drinks, and spirits in Jerry’s night-workshop rose. Ralph soon became a valued member of the night-time activities, although Ralph had taken the Pledge and never touched a drop.

Perhaps it is true that opposites attract. In the company of Ralph, the elves (and Jerry) achieved some of their most celebrated tweaking successes. It was during Ralph’s time that Jerrytones saw a major production boost, and it was Ralph who helped Jerry get a discount on laminate. It was Ralph who felt that peanut-butter-flavored fipple plugs would be a great idea—a project that sadly he could not see through to completion. Again it was Ralph who suggested the oblique angle on the tetrahedric reverberator insert for the Shaw tweaks. In his quiet, and unassuming, almost mousy manner, Ralph supplied useful and constructive input. He complemented the elves and their efficient and clean execution of tweaks with a spark of creative genius.

Ralph’s life was not without grief, as all earthly existance is shot through with sadness. The threads of irrascibility that could be found among the woof and wrap of his productive life were evident to those who knew him well. But those mere threads were not the source of their grief: It was the fact that Ralph’s nature was often misunderstood that caused his friends and family grief. I myself almost called him a rat once, causing perhaps the gravest moment of hardship—the moment of truth in the desert----when, like a man, Ralph remained firm and refused the consoling libation offered him by the sympathetic elves. It hurt him to be seen as greedy and extortionist, although Ralph himself, in lighter moments, would be the first to joke about his love for sunflower seeds.

That’s how we will remember him: The joy and glee, the unbounded natural energy and resourcefulness, the delighted nibbling at the seeds: life, hope, and accomplishement.

We all remember Ralph.




13

Awww …

14

Bloo,

Classic!

PC

:laughing: :smiley: :laughing:

15

forgive me if i sound like a smart a–, but there is never just one mouse, one roach, or one of anything.
years ago i made a decision to end a christmass mouse situation when i found mouse droppings in my underwear drawer.
that can’t be healthy :astonished:
i did it with feline interruptus(i remember that you are alergic to puddies), as i have O blood lust. i am still guilty though.
i love the mice outside, woodrats too, but not in my house or boat. we humans pretty much cause a lot of the rodent disease problems with our own concentrated over population which equals filth and garbage.
just some meece thoughts.

best, tansy

16

Hi, Tansy.

We have a trickle of mice in this house. Never very many. Perhaps more than one, as you say. When it gets to where I’m aware of more than one mouse, I catch them until no more show up in the traps. I used to use snap traps, but since Cranberry told me about MiceCubes, I prefer them. I’ve been in places where there were lots of mice and it was different from this.

Ralph I and Ralph II were (are) specific, individual mice. For the time that each was visiting, there were no other mice coming into my office, and no evidence of mice anywhere else in the house.

Ralph I would gnaw, and I could sometimes tell where he was in the house during the time before I put the pantry contents into mouseproof containers and set him up in my office. When I caught and released him, the gnawing sounds stopped.

Ralph II liked to hang out next to the box where I keep waste paper under my desk (usually overflowing). When Ralph II would arrive around 10:00 p.m., I would hear him rustling in the overflow paper. Then he would work his way around towards the food, sometimes running afoul of the fins of the baseboard hot water heating unit and making a zipping noise. It would take him about half an hour to work his way over to the food.

Ralph I would hang out and make eye contact while he nibbled, and he would squeak. Ralph II was a hit and run mouse. He would nibble for a short time, then dart off and come back again.

Some people are birdwatchers. I guess I’m a mousewatcher.

17

your a good man jerry. i love 'um all, the animals. i put out a scoup of dried cat food each day on a stone at the edge of my garden, the birds come and feast and sometimes cats and at dusk mice and woodrats.
it’s one of my finest pleasures to watch them all.
they kind of all get along with each other.
there is a mocking bird that lost its mate this winter and each evening when i play whistle he comes and sits 2 feet away from me turning his head and we have major eye contact.
i feel blessed.
his name is droupie, because his wings sag low.

18

Tansy,

If he hasn’t already, eventually that bird will start mocking your whistling (seriously). Extremely cool.

Best wishes,
Jerry

19

Godspeed, Ralph.

In your honor (sniffle): Farewell to Ralph

Carol

20

Jerry–

How come you don’t have Eastern Black Rat Snakes and Eastern Milk Snakes hanging around to keep the mouse population naturally balanced?

I’ve ended up in a house that seems more ecosystem than residence–1850s log under board and batten (battens removed) under asphalt siding under board and batten–all over a dirt cellar. The exterior walls are real critter highways.

While the weather’s warm and the snakes are awake, the interior mouse population decreases significantly. When the weather cools off, voila! Mice.

My poor cats were never taught to hunt by their mom and think that mice are designed to be batted across the floor and then chased. Usually at 3 a.m. They accidentally killed one the other week and tried to hide it under the sofa with the rest of their toys–fortunately we noticed it before it became offensive.

They also think the baby snakes that sometimes appear in the house are self-propelled string.

I try to rescue all the cats’ toys (mammalian or reptilian–handled with work gloves) and put them at the feet of St. Francis in my herb patch for respite.

But isn’t there something charming about a mouse’s impossibly large and liquid eyes? Those quivering whiskers? That racing heart?

M