Strange bedfellows

When we moved to a small seaside town, we were advised to keep the doors closed in order to prevent field mice from coming into the house and not to feed the birds, because mice are attracted to the birdseed and eventually snakes will seek out the mice.

We took no notice since we have been feeding birds for as long as I can remember and we never had a serious mouse problem.    Alarm bells were starting to ring (softly) when the mouse who, delighted us with his antics at the bird feeder and bath, told his friends about the two suckers who dishes out free food twice a day.  

We gave the mice the benefit of the doubt, thinking that field mice live in the field and that there are possibly only the two.

When the cat brought the third mice, it has been catching, for our admiration we realized that the two mice we spotted must be two of many.

Since we developed a relationship with our birds (and field mice) we decided to keep the doors closed, but sometimes we forgot.    When our holiday visitors arrived, we also neglected to explain to them the need to keep the doors closed.

This resulted in them having a very unusual holiday experience.   

 A family of four organized their sleeping arrangements by placing three mattresses together on the floor of a little back room with an outside door.   The father, who was sleeping closest to the wall, decided to investigate a strange sound coming from the corner of the mattress.    Torch in hand, he lifted the section of the mattress from where the sound originated and to his surprise, he saw that a mouse just gave birth to a litter of five.   She was quietly sitting there next to her newborn family looking back at him, while mentally projecting message to mind his own business.   He decided to leave her there till morning because he did not want to disturb the kids, who were asleep on the mattress next to him.

Every time the mice made a noise he just lightly tapped the wall and silence would be restored.   

In the morning he decided that it was time to relocate the mouse family just to discover that she made a nest for her babies by chewing a hole in the mattress.

The mice are now safely relocated.   The kids have an unbelievable story to tell their teachers when they return to classroom and thank goodness for the pet rats they have at home.  

The episode would have played out differently if it was my sister-in-law who occupied the mattress.   She is petrified of mice and would have spent the rest of the night on the chair after she alerted the whole neighbourhood with the highest octaves she could muster.   

At least it was a mouse that gave birth in the mattress and not a snake.     I don’t think I will tell them about the snakes that are supposed to follow the mice.     But then again my brother’s kid has a pet snake  . . . . .