When I really dislike someone I'll go for their juggler
Some recent occurrences in the life of the Ceri:
- Have been bested by an ironing board cover
- Enjoyed spending quality time with sparrows
- Broken a window
- Found a clay pipe stem in the garden soil
- Spent 20p to see a hedgehog
I'll explain about the egog further down the comment thread (someone else having enquired specifically about it), but as far as far as the mouse goes...
I was walking along a nearby road under the name of Woodville*, and happened to glance down just as I was about to set my foot down on a small, grey, fluffy form. I managed to step back in time to avoid treading on it, and crouched down to get a better look at whatever it was.
'It' was a grey mouse, very small, very fluffy (almost downy, like chicks and ducklings), and apparently very laid back, because it was sitting right in the middle of the pavement, and didn't seem to notice or be startled by me even when I'd dropped down beside it. The fact that it was the middle of the day, and there were lots of people about didn't seem to unduly concern it either. The one thing on the mouse's mind, it seemed, was its determination to pull up a flattened, hardened, unpleasant-looking piece of chewing gum from the tarmac.
Goodness knows what was so appealing about this particular piece of gum, favoured above all other off-white blobs in this stretch of pavement, and goodness knows quite what the mouse thought it would gain from it. I rather suspected that chewing gum would play havoc with the digestive system of this tiny rodent, and that it could surely have little nutritional value, if any. Nevertheless, the little grey mouse tugged away, unperturbed by the large creature next to it, or its cries of: "What are you doing, you silly thing?"
The unsuitable diet aside, my main concern was that the mouse would be trodden on. Given that it was apparently fixed on a task right in the centre of the pavement, on a street well used by pedestrians, and that it appeared to be entirely lacking a healthy wariness of people, it seemed more than likely to me that the mouse would be squished in no time. I can't think now what I was up to that day, but I was in a fair hurry, else I would have taken more action, but, as it was, I couldn't dally. I hadn't exactly come prepared for mouse wrangling - I didn't have anything about me that I could use to contain the thing, and it being summer, I didn't have any gloves about me to use for the avoidance of scratches and bites. I don't mind scratches and bites from small animals if they're pets, but think they're probably best avoided from urban rodentlife.
As it was, all I could do was scrunch up a tissue from my pocket, and use it as a buffer between mouse and me as I gently prodded mousie away from the gum, towards the inside edge (er, as opposed to the kerb) of the pavement, where it would at least be less exposed for the time being. Even the first cushioned poke didn't stop it from giving the chewing gum another few gnaws, but eventually, through repeated nudging, I managed to chivvy the creature to the pavement's margin. It moved by jumping sideways, rather than by scurrying - its back feet looked enormous compared to its tiny form, rather in the manner of a kangaroo, and doubtless it had a lot of muscle power in its back legs.
That done, I had to leave the mouse there and continue on my way, though I didn't hold out much hope for its prospects. Surely a creature so lacking in basic survival instincts couldn't last long in the big wide world :-(
Ah well. The best I can hope is that it took stock after I'd left it, saw the error of its ways, and sought out advice about Stranger Danger from older, wiser mice. Mousekind isn't going to last much longer if its youth starts taking this sort of attitude.
*ha! I ran a Google image search on 'Woodville Road', on a whim, and one of the few pictures showing 'my' Woodville Road was this one:
That's the local Korean and Japanese food shop I mentioned a while back when I was wondering about sticky rice :-) Still haven't sought any of that out, yet, but it's a good shop, and nice to see the place online.
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