I inadvertently aided in nature being “red in tooth and claw” today. I was washing out bushel baskets, and the plastic baskets are left outside all year when they’re not in use, so I’m always leery about what creatures might be in between them when I’m unstacking them. In one, there was a ratty bundle of tuft, and I thought idly to myself, Huh. That looks like a mouse’s nest. I turned it upside-down to dump out the debris, and out of one of the holes at the bottom of the basket popped a mouse’s head. I dropped the basket, shrieked, shouted a few things, jumped around, and then thought, Oh, no. There are probably babies in there. And there were. Five of them, no bigger than the first joint of your little finger, pink and hairless, squeaking weakly for their mother as she disappeared into the grass.
I did what I could. I put on gloves, picked them up off the cold ground and gently tucked them back into their nest, placed the nest in the grass along the fence where I’d last seen the mother and put the bushel basket over it to keep the cat from eating them. Tim said that the mother will probably come back and find them.
I don’t think she will.
No comments:
Post a Comment