I got home from work to find a mouse in the garage. He was breathing, but not moving. Too soundly sleeping to be "just sleeping" after the noise of the garage door.
We grabbed a container and gently scooped him up. I transferred him to a little vivarium (glass lizard cage) from when we had little anoles in the motorhome. At first he nipped at me a little out of fear. Not enough to break skin, but I washed it very thoroughly anyway.
I set up some water and a little dish of seeds, in case we could get him eating.
The odds weren't good to begin with, I knew. But I figured I'd try, in case he could be nursed back to health. Maybe he was just hungry and thirsty.
I did get him to drink a little water from an eye dropper. He did try to eat one of the small seeds. But along the way I noticed blood coming out the back of him. Just a little. But the fact that there was any at all pretty much confirmed it. I kept giving him tiny bits of water, just trying to make him comfortable. He didn't seem in pain, just tired.
Jareth was finishing a bath, and Kayla was upstairs playing when the end came. He started thrashing about a little, and I knew it was time. I scooped him up gently. There was no resistance, no biting. It didn't even seem like pain, just a little last bit of fight left. He coughed up a little bit of blood and then he was still. He stopped his little breaths. I petted his head one last time and set him back down gently.
The kids took it well. They were disappointed. They'd hoped he'd get better and be a pet. But I explained that he was just too hurt. We talked a little bit about how plants die, and I compost them to make dirt to feed the plants in the garden, and that animals die, too. I told them Amy and I would put the mouse outside somewhere nice, and that the mouse would also become dirt and bring life to the flowers in the yard. Then he would be something else. They both suggested that he'd be a mouse again next time around, and they both hoped he would stay away from garages next time.
Amy is still off at the school, learning about what Jareth's days are going to be like as a first grader. The first graders will have a class pet. I wonder if it'll be a mouse. Whatever it is, I wonder if Jareth will end up asking the teacher if maybe it was a mouse once.
Posted by fictionman at September 1, 2009 08:59 PM | TrackBack (0)