the garage mouse

i have lots of random animal stories piled up around here, so NaBloPoMo will help me turn those into posts! we're going to start with the little garage mouse.

several months ago now (man, i've been really lazy with my posting!) my husband picked me up after a long evening of work and drove me back home. we clicked our automatic garage door opener, and paused while the door went up. suddenly we realized that there was a teeny figure on the floor of the garage--in our headlights we couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it wasn't moving and it appeared to be about the size of a mouse or a chipmunk. i've been suckered by leaves (a million times), so i jumped out of the car to investigate and make sure we were really dealing with an animal and not a rock. heh.

sure enough, there was a tiny mouse frozen in shock on our garage floor. i approached him and he didn't even run. it was really dark out, but our headlights were shining into the garage, so i don't know if he was just stunned by the light, or if he was hurt, or what... but the fact that he didn't even scoot when i walked right up to him made us a little concerned for his well-being. after quite awhile, he scooted out of the way enough for us to pull the car in, but then he ran underneath it and froze like a statue again. i was really worried about him. my husband's theory was that he might have been climbing around in the rafters when the door opened, and fell all the way to the floor. poor sweetie!

we made a deal that we'd close the door for an hour, and leave him be. if he was just scared/shocked, that would give him time to gain his bearings and go on his little mouse way. if he was still there in an hour, we would figure something else out.

we went inside, changed into our jammies, and made dinner. i thought about the mouse the entire time, counting down until the hour had passed. the minute that happened, i announced, "one hour!" and i went upstairs to get a flashlight. we went back out to the garage in our pajamas and i held my breath while we opened the door again. part of me wanted him to be gone, but part of me wanted him to still be there, so i could see him again. i'm selfish like that--he was ridiculously cute!

he was still there, underneath the back end of my car. he didn't really run when he saw us, but he did move around, so at least he seemed "basically okay." still, he wasn't good enough to make us think he was all better. we decided to feed him. my husband went inside to prepare a mouse buffet, and i stayed outside to keep an eye on the mouse. while we sat there together, the mouse ran directly at me, then stopped and started running in circles, over and over again. i freaked out a little, worrying about head injuries and such. eventually he stopped and looked inquisitively at me. i repeat: So Cute!

my husband brought out a random sampling of tiny mouse treats: small pieces of a chocolate chip cookie, a bit of cracker, some shreds of cheese (courtesy of husband). he also brought a bottlecap full of water. we placed everything under the car, and the mouse came right over to the bottlecap and had perhaps the most adorable drink i've ever been privileged to watch. then he ate bits of the cookie. heh. that mouse is my kind of mouse.

we tried to catch him, so we could bring him in and keep an eye on him, but he seemed like he'd rather stay in the garage and mooch our treats--we took that as a good sign, and decided to leave him alone for the night. i was a little sad, because i was weirdly excited about the idea of taking care of a little mouse overnight, but of course the important part was that he seemed to be improving, so.

in the morning we went out to check on him, and more of the cookie had been eaten, but no sign of mr. mouse! i like to think that he's out there telling all of his mouse friends about the crazy adventure he had, and how not all people are scary. hooray for garage mouse!

Comments

[gladcow]

mouse buffet! oh, I love mouse buffet!

[Gary]

Hooray for you guys. I love reading stories of human kindness, especially to the small, forgotten creatures. It's a glimpse of what the world could be like, should be like.

I like mouse buffet, too!

[gen]

awwwwwwwwwwww... :)

[danny]

that was great

[bird]

so cute!! i love you guys.

[Electrical Gates]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading about garage doors. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

[Doh Driver]

You know, if you give a mouse a cookie.... Well, there's a book about the potential disaster of doing that, and as soon as I read that he got a bit of chocolate chip cookie, I thought, "oh, no!" I'm very concerned for the chain of events you may have started.

;-)

[girl least likely to]

ha! i've heard of "if you give a pig a pancake," probably from the same series. ;)

[Miso Vegan]

'zactly. :-) "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie " was the first of the series. and it shows a mouse with a chocolate chip cookie on the front. dun-dun-dunnnn.