MY LATE FRIEND, the MOUSE...

When I wound up in Bonner Springs, Kansas in one of my travels, I stayed at my mom and dads. They had an upstairs apartment that I rented. I have a feeling for animals that has progressed to the point that I would rather catch a spider or fly or any living thing and release it outside as opposed to killing it. It has been an ongoing and escalating problem. My thought is always that “they are just trying to make living like the rest of us”.

What brings this to mind is a recollection of the time that I was watching TV one evening alone in that apartment and happened to see a small mouse out of the corner of my eye. I just watched and didn’t try to scare him or her.(Never figured that out). After that, most every evening he would come out of somewhere and sit nervously at a distance. One night I got some cheese and put it down. Very cautiously, he/she sidled over and ate the cheese. This went on for some time and became a ritual most evenings.



One night my mom asked me down to eat with them. This happened occasionally. In the course of the conversation I mentioned about my friend the mouse. Mom proceeded to inform me that they have been having a mouse problem for some time and she did NOT want me feeding one of them. She was very enthusiastic about the point. I agreed. I went to work the next morning and when I arrived home and while fixing supper, I heard a loud snap from the other room. When I went to see what it was I saw my little friend caught in a mousetrap. Dead. Fortunately, I never saw any more mice to feed while living there. No acknowledgement of this was ever made between mom and I.