Once upon a time there was a mouse...

Those of you who read our Facebook page will have already heard about this - we have had an adventure with a real life mouse!

(This is not the Real Life Mouse, this is an actor)

Friday afternoon, and my other half turned up in the office doorway with a tiny, drenched, barely moving baby mouse he had rescued from the cat. It didn't look too hopeful, but I popped the little chap into a box with some of Humphrey's hay and placed it next to the heater under the desk. He was so, so tiny. Half the size of my little finger.

Over the next few of hours the little mouse brightened up considerably! He dried out and started to move around in his box. He had a bit of a problem with a back leg, but otherwise seemed pretty fast and agile. It was hard to catch him, even in the little box. I was delighted - it looked like he was going to make it!

I toyed with letting him out into the garden that night, but it was torrential rain and pretty cold. I decided to keep him in his box over night and release him the next morning. I added a handful of rabbit food, a bit of chocolate, some leaves, a cotton reel table and a tea set water bowl to his box. (I admit I also dreamed about keeping him as a Cottontails pet, but knew this wouldn't be a happy life for a wild mouse, so the next morning was to be 'release day'.)






The next morning. I gingerly poked about in the hay looking for the little chap but there was no movement or scrabbling. My heart sank when I thought he might have died, but I couldn't find him anywhere. And then I spotted a tiny round hole in the corner of the box. HE HAD ESCAPED!

(Angel Mouse could barely fit her nose through the escape hole)

I was happy he was clearly alive and well and full of beans if he had managed to stage an escape, but not so happy at the thought that somewhere in my office, rammed to rafters with expensive toys, lived a tiny nibbling creature.

Not long afterwards I noticed the phone wasn't working. The cable had been chewed. Oh dear.

Well... I don't really have a conclusion to this story as to be honest I don't know if he is still here or not. I spent the whole day spring cleaning and emptying every little cubby hole in the office. A couple of times I thought I heard a scrabbling sound under the packing table over by the door (when Humphrey - the usual creator of scrabbles - was asleep at the other end of the office) and I had the door open all day. I am hoping he has made his way back into the big wide world.

But I don't know. After all, if I was a mouse who happened up this office, complete with Mouse Houses, mouse furniture, mouse beds and a ready supply of fresh bunny food throughout the day, well I might be tempted to stay....!