How on earth did it get there? This is the third floor, for heaven’s sake! Can it get back to ground level? Is it expecting me to rescue it . . . ??!!
Help . . Now, let’s be calm and rational about this. It must have been left behind when the workmen removed the scaffolding. Short of flying, that’s the only way it could have got here.
Do you see its beautiful, round ears? Surely that means that it’s a field mouse, rather than a house mouse? It really has a very beguiling expression.
But what do I do . . . ? What is the poor thing going to eat . . . ? Is there any way that I could catch it . . .?
Clearly I can’t tell you any more at the moment. But, as soon as there are any further developments . . . well, you’ll be the first to know!
((four days later)
There have been developments . . . after seeking advice from all and sundry, I have purchased a trip trap.
What is a trip trap? Well, it’s supposed to entice the mouse inside, without harming it. Once inside, it keeps it safe, but contained, until you empty it out to enjoy a new life, preferably at the far end of the garden.
I consulted the pleasant girl who served me at the pet shop as to how best to set the trap. What did she advise as a lure, I wanted to know, cheese or peanuts?
"Something sweet," she said, with the air of one who knew about such things, "I'd recommend a piece of cheese coated with cranberry sauce."
Thinking this over, I can't help wondering how, in the course of an uneventful life in the garden, my mouse could have cultivated such exotic tastes. Nonetheless, cheese with cranberry sauce he/she will get.
I don't intend setting the trap until the weekend. To be trapped in a plastic tube in this heat would be terrible - even in the company of cheese and cranberry sauce. Even worse would be to be trapped in a thunderstorm. The poor little creature could die of fright. So, come a cooler weekend, I'll set the trap and await events. What's the betting that he/she will be a vegan who has sworn to abstain from dairy products! Or, far more likely, that after having so established himself/herself in the window-box (there is now a spacious back entrance as well as a front one) she/he will be crafty enough to remove the bait without getting trapped!!
I'll keep you posted!
