I want to tell you the sad but true story of the bravest mouse I have ever known, a smart mouse who sacrificed himself for what may have been the biggest score of his life. We are reminded constantly of the real world of real animals.

I was in the kitchen making breakfast when I heard a clunking and rattling coming from the big room at the end of the house. Maria was upstairs and the dogs were outside and I just could not imagine what the noise would be. I came into the room and looked behind a big chair and there I saw this small mouse dragging a discarded large dog biscuit – it was covered with dust and grime –  into a very small hole in the wall. The hole was barely big enough for him, but not nearly big enough for this biscuit. He was trying hard to pull it in.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I almost pounded him with a walking stick, but couldn’t, mostly because he was so brave and determined. I couldn’t help thinking that this mouse had hit the jackpot, and was going for it.

I reached down and saw him hanging on to the biscuit for dear life, and trying to pull it into the hole. He could easily have vanished into it, but he wouldn’t go. Perhaps he didn’t see me reach down – he must have – but I was able to grab him by the tail, and to my surprise, he still wouldn’t let go of the biscuit. This mouse had to live, I thought. He deserves his biscuit. But not in the farmhouse. I picked him up with one hand, the biscuit with the other. I took both up in the tall grass and bush by the side of the house and dropped him there. He could make a nest out there and keep his hard-won treat. I’m sure he could find his way back into the farmhouse or one of the barns.  He was a brave and determined mouse.

An hour later, I came outside and Lenore rushed to a spot right by the garden. She looked up at me, and sniffed. Whatever was there, Lenore wasn’t eating it, which drew my attention.  I came up and saw the mouse, dead right near his biscuit. Surely, he was trying to get back into the house.  On the top of the nearby stone wall, I saw Mother, sitting there, swishing her tail, watching us. I don’t mourn mice much, but I did feel bad about this one. I put  him on the biscuit, took a photo, said good bye and buried him up the hill a ways, deep enough to keep the cats off of him. I buried the biscuit with him, so he got to keep it after all. So there is that. That is the sad but true story of a brave and determined mouse. The bravest mouse I have known.