The Christmas Mouse
A little true story that has unfolded over the Yule time holidays to start the new year for us all.
I was chatting with Kathy, (who makes our beautiful felt accessories) a few days before Christmas and she told me she thought she might have a night time visitor.
When she went to turn on the tree lights, she noticed one of her dried orange segment decorations had been eaten. Just the inside, the rind was intact and on the tree. Nothing else had been moved, there was no evidence of anything anywhere except the single eaten orange slice. Just the one.
The following morning, she came down and yet again, just one single slice had been eaten, nothing else, no hint of mouse droppings or anything nearby.
Of course now we were all involved and waiting to hear the news each morning. Had a slice been eaten? Just the one? Or more? Kathy thinks it is one of the little wood mice that live in the garden, coming in each might for a midnight snack and then sneaking off again.
I thought my heart would melt at the thought of this mouse popping in and only eating one single segment each night. Not more or less. If it wasn’t actually happening, you’d not believe it to be true.
The following night, she said the Mouse had nibbled through the string to knock it down onto a branch it could sit on and had once more eaten the orange.
What was she going to do? I asked if she was going to put a humane trap out or what she was going to do. Did she have enough orange segments? Would she keep feeding the mouse?
Kathy said that there were enough segments to last till Christmas eve so she’d let them have a slice each night. And then we started talking about making little mice with orange segments and you know how it goes…
Christmas eve I get this photo. Honestly, I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning excitedly waiting to hear if the Christmas Mouse had been and if they’d eaten their treats and did they try the slippers on! There were lots of jokes of leaving out mince pies for Father Christmas as being so last year and such and excitement of would the mouse be curled up asleep with their slippers on?
So Christmas Morning I get a message saying Merry Mousemas! The Christmas Mouse will be spending the day sleeping off the party for one last night!
So Kathy has done a deal to leave one extra slice out for the mouse each night, (they ate two slices the night after the storm when they didn’t come in!) and I think I have to write a story one day, but in the mean time, the first thing I made this year is a Christmas Mouse. Having a nibble. If anyone would like this little piece of joy to remind them of a true story happening to the Mouse Emporium’s seamstress, then this little mouse scene is in the New Collection page.
And for the rest of you, here’s to kindness, joy and small beauties in our days but most of all,
Merry Mousemas!.
Click on the photo to take you to the new collection if you would like this little mouse.