Who likes mice? I don't think there are many of us that would think twice about setting a trap if one of them was crawling around in our house but what if they moved in with there family? What if they came into your house holding hands- Father, Mother, Sisters, and Brothers? Looking much like the mice from The Rescuers Down Under with suitcases, coats and hats, would you still be so eager to set the traps?
Yesterday while working in the dirtiest shed I have ever been in (I mean S$%@ to the ceiling), we came across a family of mice. There were these small trunks stacked in the country and we saw potential for them and thought that would sell in the yard sale coming up. As we started to unstack them and put them in our keep pile, one fell open and out fell a whole nest of mice. Now, there was a bunch of baby mice scattered on the floor. The babies were crying and the quick decision had to be made..... set the trap? The crying from the babies must have made our hearts soft because we hunted all the babies amongst the trash and dirt on the floor and then after a family photo shoot we put the mice back into the small trunk and then put it back onto the shelf. I was glad we had done the "right thing" but as we watched the mother mouse hop up to the shelf and into the trunk with her babies a sudden appreciation for families came over me. I realized that standing alone that mother mouse would have been dead; her kids essentially saved her. Seeing her in the context of a family as a mother made her stronger than just the normal "mouse in the house." My aunt cried and I laughed that we even went that far to save these mice, but I guess family comes first.
