Taexalia

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What Is That Mark On The Carpet?

I decided to have a late afternoon shower, as those of us who are self-employed can choose to do. So I did the whole naked and soap thing and once I was nice and shiny I pushed the shower curtain back and as I reached for the towel to wrap my hair, I caught sight of a small brown mark on the floor. It was about an inch in diameter. I thought "What is that, I'm sure that wasn't there before..." (it should be noted that I do not wear my glasses in the shower).

As I wrapped my hair in a towel, it slowly dawned on me that the brown blob mark on the carpet had a tail. But it continued to sit there stock still as I dripped all over the place.

The bathroom door was closed and it seemed to be patiently waiting for it to open.

I looked around the bathroom for *something* and the only thing I could come up with was the empty loo roll tube sitting on the bin. Hooray for the person who didn't bother to take it to the recycling box!

I picked it up and plopped it over the wee moose and then stood there thinking "OK what do I do now?"

I am still dripping with only my hair in a towel but I go out into the hall and locate a plastic storage box that has been waiting for a purpose. I shoogled the wee thing and the tube into the box and as the moose came to life and started jumping I slapped the lid on.

I am not an experienced mouser - the last one we had didn't bother us much, ignored the humane traps and was eventually found dead on my kitchen floor. I imagine it was the same mouse just as I imagine that someone else in the building put down the poison that got her. So with a box with a baby mouse measuring little more than an inch, I wondered what to do next.

I phoned Allan.

He was not far from home on a bus and arrived soon after to hold the lid whilst I took a photo:

Baby House Mouse

Baby House Mouse

We decided to take it to the park a little later in the evening and let it go. I popped some breadcrumbs into the box and chattered to it a bit.

About 10 minutes later, Allan yelled from the lounge that he saw another one go under his desk. I offered various implements but the hero decided to catch it with his BARE HANDS! He caught it like you would catch a kitten, by the scruff of it's neck, and carried it through to the box in the hall - it screamed blue murder, quite a tantrum for such a tiny beastie.

They seemed to know each other and huddled up together for a while before they started to go inside the tube and roll it about - at this point I considered getting a cage!

Allan later saw another mouse but wasn't quick enough to catch it, so it seems we have a nest of tiny babies. Hopefully we will catch them all!

We took the intrepid two up to the park and at first, when I opened the box, they hid inside the tube and didn't want to go anywhere. It was so cute! Then they realised they were free and skittered off into the undergrowth.

I did think of Misssy M and her snails and wondered if I should number the mice, but I decided that the idea of *knowing* they were homing wouldn't really placate me in a situation where I was feeling over run.

A situation which is not going to arise, you understand, oh Universe.

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Posted on July 4, 2007 in Mammals, Storytelling, Wildlife.

One Response to “What Is That Mark On The Carpet?”

  1. Misssy M says:
    July 5, 2007 at 9:25 am

    Baby Moooses, foxes, snails… We’ve now got a baby bird rescue mission going on as I type- may blog it later. What next?

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