Where? There on the stair patio!
Bold as brass, this little fellow came out to ‘tidy up’ after the collared doves had kicked a lot of grain off the feeding station, despite the fact that OH was sitting watching him with the conservatory door wide open, only about two yards away. I guess he was hungry!
Basically, this is the reason we stopped feeding the dogs outside; we are right on the edge of the village next to a field where grain crops are regularly planted and there are always mice and rats nearby. One day, I caught a glimpse through the window of a cheeky little mouse sitting in one of the dogs’ bowls, finishing up the last scraps of their dinner. Since more than 50% of rodents in the UK carry leptospirosis (a bacterial disease which attacks the liver and causes jaundice), I didn’t think this was a good idea.
So we stopped feeding the dogs outside, and for a while, we stopped feeding the birds, too.
But as you see, they’re still around.
They’re fascinating little creatures. One of our sons used to keep them as pets and of course, it soon became my job to clean them out and feed them – and on one memorable occasion soon after we bought them, to treat them for mange. Imagine having to dip two wriggling, squirming little mice in a bath of insecticidal solution every few day? They are really, really good at hanging by their tails and contorting themselves so that no part of their little bodies enters the water!
And my, aren’t they fast?
Don’t you just love the way this one is turning on the spot so fast that only his little pink foot is in any kind of focus? Sweet!
I don’t mind them too much, because a) you can’t keep them out of the garden anyway and b) our dogs are always vaccinated against lepto.
Just as long as they don’t come in the house.
Because if they do, I still have the set of humane mouse traps left over from the days before we had all the ground level floors concreted and all the odd holes around pipes mended.
http://youtu.be/aKCQIR2BM_g
Ooops! Looks like he may have heard me!
So tell me; how do YOU feel about mice?