December is National Adopt A Mouse Month

I bet you did not know there's such a thing as "Adopt A Mouse Month" - That's because this is the first year of it's observance. Starting now, maybe I can get this thing to catch on, who knows but in a decade it could be a global sensation with international "Adopt A Mouse" festivals.. I'm a wishful thinker. It's that time of the year when we open our homes and our hearts for the holidays and in this case our furry little friends who survived the initial fall season onslaught. I'm talking of the common house mouse, it's those among them whom manage to avoid house cats all while moving into houses seeking shelter as the fall months progress and temperatures drop. So you ask what provoked me to coin this "Adopt A Mouse Month?"

A year ago today I took in a mouse, gave him shelter, food and water and to my surprise he's still alive and going strong. He came into my workplace and succeeded very well where most other mice failed. The mice were stomped, trampled, thrown in trash compactors, whacked with wrenches, tossed against walls, shot with pellet guns, flattened under car tires, and feel prey to the ominous "snap" of Victor mouse traps. Those who were not casualties of the before mentioned methods often and inadvertently took their own lives chewing electrical wires or drinking anti-freeze, I believe the proper term would be "rodentcide" or "vermanicide." Either way you slice it, the mice were dropping like flies.. except one. One very smart and exceptional little mouse. This one mouse managed to trip all of the traps the boss man had set or not even trip them in the first place but instead delicately and gingerly pick around the triggering tongue part of the trap. This mouse knew how to get the food and get away with it time after time, he was gaming the system. It frustrated the boss man. I was called upon to tidy things up, remove any food that could lure them into the building and when they were trapped in garbage cans, it was my job to empty the trash.

One day we had a bite, a rattle from within a garbage can. Said rodent was going berserk as he found the mother lode of happy meal leftovers somebody had chucked into the can without second thought. I did my due diligence, took the can outside and emptied it into the dumpster hoping he'd make a break for the great outdoors and save himself from the compactor. After emptying all the contents of the can, I sat it down and looked inside. Somehow he managed to cling onto the side of the can. I shook it several times hoping to get him out, no dice. I laid the can on it's side, first I tried to reach in and grab him to no avail as he squirmed around then I backed away and whistled saying "Common, come here boy!" patting the pavement. Several wide eyed coworkers strolled past, I exclaimed "Today I'm the mouse whisperer. It's no easy job herding these things." I was growing impatient knowing that all the while my fellow employees may soon be consulting the yellow pages for the nearest mental health professional, but I was determined as the can had to be mouse free before returning to the inside of the building. Finally the mouse scampered out of the can and across the pavement into the distance of the parking lot never to be seen again.. or was he?

A few days passed and virtually no rodent activity to be seen as the majority of the mice had already been killed off. Sure enough a few days later, one very smart mouse was succeeding where the others had failed, evading attempts by people to kill him and robbing the mouse traps of bait like Bonnie & Clyde robbed banks. The boss man's mouse free bliss was now shattered like the half eaten peanut brittle bits sprawled out amongst the sea of overturned Victor mouse traps speckled with rodent droppings across the early morning floor. My admiration for this smart little mighty mouse was quickly growing.

Then on December 7th 2011, exactly a year ago today, the mouse got himself caught inside the trash can again. Deciding I was not going to take him outside and go through the whole dumpster routine again as he proved he was far too smart for that the previous time and being a growing fan of his since he seemed to have a magical gift for agitating the boss man. I decided there was something unique about this talented mouse that set him apart from the others, I decided to let him live. Thus came my decision to adopt him as the work place was very hostile towards his presence, I took pity on him and saw the need to spare such an intelligent mouse from the wrath of the certain knuckle dragging wrench wielding cretins and prevent him from becoming the cannon faughter of mid-level managers. Feeling discriminated against by everybody else there, the mouse trusting of me was picked up, put in a small container and brought home. I dusted off an old mouse cage I had sitting in the basement. It used to be home to a pet store mouse whose owners left him to me when they went to Russia, the previous tenant was a black and white mouse named Waterfall (2001-2006) who was trained to do tricks. I laid out some paper shredding, cloth, food, water, and mouse dwellings. The new mouse took well to this lifestyle and has grown bigger and very healthy with the easy life and a good diet.

I knew the dangers of adopting a wild mouse, certain viruses and such but have kept him clean and being that he used to live at the workplace, nobody there had come down with any Hantavirus related symptoms. This is a don't try this at home thing but I tend to be a rebel about those things.

Yamamoto the mouse. He usually avoids the public spotlight and dislikes the paparazzi. Ever try photographing a mouse? They are very camera shy.

The mouse spends his pass times, eating, nesting, sleeping, chewing and teasing the cats and in his year of living at home. He's been out of the cage on a few adventures. Twice when the cats finally figured out how to release the spring loaded door latching mechanism. One weekend he was missing in action following the cats attempts on the cage. For a few nights I'd wake up at 3AM to hear the sound of something gnawing on wood in the next room and in the walls. After a weekend of pink insulation being knocked loose and presuming my mouse was at large in the house and likely dead, he showed back up and readily took back to his cage dwellings. Twice he's been picked up and carried in the cats mouth's when he's been out. At the last minute I've intervened and saved him from almost certain death while wringing him dry of cat slobber. I've secured his cage now to make it nearly impossible for the cats to open it, until they brainstorm some new ideas. I've expanded the cage into two many feet of interconnecting tubes to give him plenty of exercise room to roam.

At first I considered a worthy name sake for him to be that of the boss man and then I thought, there's better names than the boss man whom he outsmarted. Considering that I found him on Pearl Harbor Day, the 70th anniversary, it opened up name choices to historic figures. I was left with a tough decision between Yamamoto and Nimitz, both were clever admirals of the second world war. I decided Yamamoto was a better more natural name fit for this mouse.

In time Yamamoto has gone from wild to a tame and survived many adventures. He's considerably tougher than many normal mice, he's braved many things in his short mouse lifetime. I've found our musical tastes are almost identical except we differ on one thing, I'm a fan of the Canadian electro-house DJ Deadmou5, Yamamoto does not feel as strongly about it, in fact he's sort of a harsh critic when it comes to the music of Deadmau5. (Dead Mouse)

In the end me and Yamamoto ultimately prevailed. He's been a source of entertainment and a mouse to confide in. He was at my side, when I had to make a tough call to let the boss man go (who failed so many times trying to catch or kill Yamamoto) relieving him from his duties as we felt it was time to let the company go from our lives. Me and Yamamoto move on as business partners on happy trails in greener pastures. What can I say? The mouse outsmarted the boss man and is living the big easy life with plenty of cheese, making big executive power player calls from the comfort of his running wheel. And here you thought these mouse stories were only works of fiction such as Mouse Hunt, Of Mice & Men, The Mouse That Roared, and The Green Mile.

Being that today is the 71st Anniversary of Pearl Harbor I'd like to thank our veterans. I'm also grateful for the many decades of peace and prosperity since the war that American & Japanese unity has brought. None of us anywhere in this world can go back in time and undo darker chapters in human history nor fully vanquish the pain from tragedies that happened for all parties involved, however in the present we can learn from history and say a prayer for world peace. For it's in the future where we have the absolute power to write brighter chapters. This would be one of the best ways we could honor the sacrifices of the WWII generation.