Monday, June 20, 2005
Bye Bye Baby Mouse
We're having a doozy of a thunderstorm right now. I probably shouldn't even be online but want to post before I leave for work. We could lose our electric and /or phone, the lightning strikes are very close.
We had a sad event at 6:00 last night. Four days ago we had found a little baby field mouse. Yes, I know they are vermin but he was so cute and adorable! We went for our morning walk and he was still there, all alone, his mother didn't come and get him so he was cold and squeaking. He was staggering around blind; eyes not open yet, looking for his nonexistent family. We couldn't just leave him there to die alone he was so tiny, half as big as my thumb. He had healthy fur, little teeny whiskers and a tiny little black tail. I was going to mention him when I wrote about the bear, as in big and little creatures, but it just didn't fit in well.
We brought him inside, warmed him up, fixed up a special place for him; hand fed him warm milk every three hours for the past four days. We got very attached to him, he was so darling and his eyes were starting to open up. He responded to the sound of our voices and crawled towards us. He loved to be held and fell asleep in our hand. We thought he had made it.
Last night I was just going out the door to shop for jeans because my Mom had noticed a hole in the pocket area of my one and only pair of jeans on Saturday. I had inspected the area and while it could be patched, it would be noticeable and then the jeans wouldn't be suitable for casual Fridays. Patched jeans aren't acceptable. So I needed new ones. My son called me to the little hamster pen we had specially fixed up for Baby Mouse. It even had a space heater nearby (in 80 degree weather!) to keep him warm. Baby was still and cold, he was dead. He hadn't seemed as lively today. Our last memory of him alive was an hour or so earlier when we had him outside in the warm sun, which he seemed to like, and he was trying to look around with his just opening eyes.
Since I was halfway out the door, I kept going and went to one of my favorite department stores. There I tried on two pair of jeans in my normal size and both fit! I picked the pair that was 30% off--that was the easiest time I've ever had to buy jeans I briefly looked at shoes but didn't find any. I was standing in a long checkout line when they opened another checkout station. I zapped over quickly, ducking in front of two younger women with a cart. The clerk rang me up and then she asked, "Do you want the shoebox?" And I remembered the stamping stuff I had ordered and how nice a shoebox would be to put it all in. "Sure!" I said enthusiastically--before I remembered that I hadn't purchased any shoes and the clerk was talking to the two women behind me! Talk about feeling like an idiot! I pretty much shrunk out of the store, got into the car and cried about Baby Mouse all the way home. It was so sad that he hadn't even gotten to really see the world before he died. We buried him in one of the flower gardens.
Yeah, I know my grief was all out of portion to the death of a little mouse. People and other animals kill mice all the time. But an anonymous mouse is far different than one I knew, cared for and had hopes for. It's probably a bad analogy, but it's kind of like that for us humans, too. People are born and people die all the time but it's very different when it's someone that you know (or know of, if it happens to an acquaintance or a friend).
Of course I will quickly get over the death of my little rodent pet. So it's really not the same at all, I guess, just a reminder that life is fleeting for every creature. That's a sobering thought for a Monday.
Here's a (sort of) joke from my e-mail that seems to fit:
The Parable of the Seagull
A woman went to the beach with her children. Her 4-year-old son ran up to her, grabbed her hand, and led her to the shore where a dead seagull lay in the sand.
"Mommy, what happened to him?" the little boy asked.
"He died and went to heaven," she replied.
The child thought for a moment and said, "And he got away? Is God looking for him now?"
_______________________
PS. I think my Dad did visit me in that dream. I've dreamt of him only twice before. The first time was right around the time he died. He was shadowy and seemed sad, he was sitting in a chair and turned his face away. The second time I had heard he was at a certain place (in the dream) and hurried to see him only to catch a glimpse as he faded away without a word. Neither time did he ever say anything to me, let alone have a conversation and hang out with me like he did in this most recent dream!
We had a sad event at 6:00 last night. Four days ago we had found a little baby field mouse. Yes, I know they are vermin but he was so cute and adorable! We went for our morning walk and he was still there, all alone, his mother didn't come and get him so he was cold and squeaking. He was staggering around blind; eyes not open yet, looking for his nonexistent family. We couldn't just leave him there to die alone he was so tiny, half as big as my thumb. He had healthy fur, little teeny whiskers and a tiny little black tail. I was going to mention him when I wrote about the bear, as in big and little creatures, but it just didn't fit in well.
We brought him inside, warmed him up, fixed up a special place for him; hand fed him warm milk every three hours for the past four days. We got very attached to him, he was so darling and his eyes were starting to open up. He responded to the sound of our voices and crawled towards us. He loved to be held and fell asleep in our hand. We thought he had made it.
Last night I was just going out the door to shop for jeans because my Mom had noticed a hole in the pocket area of my one and only pair of jeans on Saturday. I had inspected the area and while it could be patched, it would be noticeable and then the jeans wouldn't be suitable for casual Fridays. Patched jeans aren't acceptable. So I needed new ones. My son called me to the little hamster pen we had specially fixed up for Baby Mouse. It even had a space heater nearby (in 80 degree weather!) to keep him warm. Baby was still and cold, he was dead. He hadn't seemed as lively today. Our last memory of him alive was an hour or so earlier when we had him outside in the warm sun, which he seemed to like, and he was trying to look around with his just opening eyes.
Since I was halfway out the door, I kept going and went to one of my favorite department stores. There I tried on two pair of jeans in my normal size and both fit! I picked the pair that was 30% off--that was the easiest time I've ever had to buy jeans I briefly looked at shoes but didn't find any. I was standing in a long checkout line when they opened another checkout station. I zapped over quickly, ducking in front of two younger women with a cart. The clerk rang me up and then she asked, "Do you want the shoebox?" And I remembered the stamping stuff I had ordered and how nice a shoebox would be to put it all in. "Sure!" I said enthusiastically--before I remembered that I hadn't purchased any shoes and the clerk was talking to the two women behind me! Talk about feeling like an idiot! I pretty much shrunk out of the store, got into the car and cried about Baby Mouse all the way home. It was so sad that he hadn't even gotten to really see the world before he died. We buried him in one of the flower gardens.
Yeah, I know my grief was all out of portion to the death of a little mouse. People and other animals kill mice all the time. But an anonymous mouse is far different than one I knew, cared for and had hopes for. It's probably a bad analogy, but it's kind of like that for us humans, too. People are born and people die all the time but it's very different when it's someone that you know (or know of, if it happens to an acquaintance or a friend).
Of course I will quickly get over the death of my little rodent pet. So it's really not the same at all, I guess, just a reminder that life is fleeting for every creature. That's a sobering thought for a Monday.
Here's a (sort of) joke from my e-mail that seems to fit:
The Parable of the Seagull
A woman went to the beach with her children. Her 4-year-old son ran up to her, grabbed her hand, and led her to the shore where a dead seagull lay in the sand.
"Mommy, what happened to him?" the little boy asked.
"He died and went to heaven," she replied.
The child thought for a moment and said, "And he got away? Is God looking for him now?"
_______________________
PS. I think my Dad did visit me in that dream. I've dreamt of him only twice before. The first time was right around the time he died. He was shadowy and seemed sad, he was sitting in a chair and turned his face away. The second time I had heard he was at a certain place (in the dream) and hurried to see him only to catch a glimpse as he faded away without a word. Neither time did he ever say anything to me, let alone have a conversation and hang out with me like he did in this most recent dream!
