The rescue

When you have animals and live on a teeny tiny farm like ours, you never know what to expect when you walk out the door every morning, like the morning a while back, that a pig came to visit...

But what I did this morning, no real farmer would have ever done. Do I regret doing it? Absolutely not!

Here's the story.

(guinea lot behind the chicken house)

(door going from chicken lot into guinea lot)

Last night, after dark, when everything was quiet and the hens were sleeping on the roost above the chicken house floor, the mice came out. Scurrying about, they discovered that their little entryway into the guinea lot had been wired shut. Now who would have done such a thing!

"We'll simply dig a new tunnel", said a mouse, and they did. 

The mice climbed and played and filled their tummies with cracked corn, birdseed, and crumbles; the feed that baby guineas eat. Tired of playing and swinging on the twine that held up the crumbles feeder, one mouse chewed the twine completely into, causing the feeder to fall to the ground and spill the feed.

(feeder with string missing)

Full, and tired of playing...and daylight just around the corner, the mice scurried back home through their new hole...that is, except for one little mouse who decided to go home through a tiny half inch square in the wire and got stuck. 

(the clipped wire on the end is where I cut the square out with the mouse caught in the center)

Friends, when I found that tiny mouse this morning, afraid and stuck in the wire, my heart felt like it would break. I tried pulling the wire loose, but any movement and the little mouse squealed like I was hurting him. His fat little tummy was way too full and he was stuck tight.

Running to the house, I grabbed the needle nose pliers and the regular pliers. Neither worked. I ran inside again and got the wire clippers, but could not get the point of the clippers between the mouse and the wire to clip it loose. My hands were shaking as I clipped a square of wire all the way around the mouse, causing the square to fall out with the little mouse still stuck in the center.

With the needle nose pilers I picked up the little square of wire with the mouse stuck in the center and straightened up, easing my aching back, then moved out into the sunlight. After several tries, I managed to clip one tiny wire  and with both pliers pulled the wire apart, freeing the little mouse. He didn't run at first, he just looked at me with those tiny little black eyes, then I shooed him into the safety of some sticks and leaves that had fallen on the ground.  

Poppy has gone down home today to visit his nephews, Joey and Josh.  When he gets home, I bet he will be real proud of me for saving that little mouse, don't you?

Better get busy again. It is simply too hot to work outside so I've shampooed the living room carpet. Got some ironing to do and another load of clothes to fold. Thank you, if you are still here after all this! 

Love,
Henny