Of Mice and Me

I was reading Patrice and Nicole's blog about the mice, and it reminded me of a couple of funny mice stories of my own.

I used to live in a small town called Summit. It was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields, so there were mice-a-plenty. One day, about 6 years ago, Kiri and I decided to go into town. I can't remember why, but that is irrelevant. I decided to take my old stationwagon that had been sitting idle for a couple of months in the back yard. Kendall had been urging me to drive it, saying something about if it sits for too long the tires will rot into useless lumps, yada yada yada.

Kiri and I jumped into the wagon, which amazingly had almost a full tank of gas, and jumped on the freeway. We got about 3 miles out of town, going somewhere around 70 m.p.h, when I saw this little furry creature crawl out of the hood of the car and cling onto my windshield wiper. It was a mouse. And he was holding on for dear life, his little gray mousey fur blowing wildly in the wind. He turned and looked right at me through the windshield, and I swear I saw the fear and confusion on his face, just as if he was saying "my God, one minute I was sleeping peacefully, and the next I'm careening down the road on this god awful machine, and I don't know how to get off this ride!" He stayed on the hood the whole 15 minutes I was on the freeway, frozen with fear, or maybe exhilaration. When we got the the bank, and stopped the car, he ran back under the hood. I opened the hood, and the little monster had made a nest right on top of my battery. I looked around for him, and eventually saw him jump out of the bottom of the car and take off. I still crack up when I remember the look on that mouse's face, and his fur flying wildly around.

A different story, many years ago when I was only 6 years old or so, I was out playing with my cats (we had multitudes of cats, many of which were feral, but I was determined to tame them all, and spent many hours doing so. I cringe now when I think of all the diseases those poor cats had). I saw one of the cats had a mouse in his mouth, and it was still very much alive. My heart just broke when I looked at that poor mouse, and I stupidly tried to save it. I thought in my blind innocence that the mouse would know I was trying to save it, but of course it didn't, and the sucker bit me when I got it away from the cat. I told my mother what happened, and ended up in the hospital getting tetanus shots and crying hysterically. Not the greatest memory, though I do remember vividly my older brother making funny faces and telling me jokes while I was in the stupid hospital. What a great brother.

On a different note, I have to say I am destined to be a hobbit, methinks. I hiked and hiked last week and lost nary a pound. I just get muscle under my chub, making me think of a hobbit or Gimli the dwarf. I'm short with curly hair, so I think I must be related to one of little middle earth species. Maybe I'm an orc.

My new horse also ran into me yesterday and sent me spinning, the little hussy. She was just playing around, but it hurt, and I called her lots of nasty names, which bothered her not at all as she came over immediately and tried to sniff out the carrots I had in my pocket. I am soooo unappreciated.