Dead Young Rodent
3/28/1

I walked up the three or four steps to the concrete slab and saw him.

�Mousey Moo?� I said with not a bit of shame since there wasn�t another life form with language skills for a quarter mile in any direction.

The young, possibly adolescent, mouse didn�t blink or move. He was small and grey and he sat staring at nothing. He was dry and clean. He was crouched down a little with his tail out straight.

Five seconds after my first nonsense talk: �How are you?�

Dead, I assumed. I walked over the few feet to him and picked him up by the tail. Since I was (1) in the field and (2) paranoid about various coliform bacteria and other ook, I was wearing latex exam gloves.

At first I held the little guy upright and poked at his fluffy fur. I didn�t say anything to the mouse which was obviously dead, but looked so alive. His hair was perfect. His toes were tiny and pink with just a hint of white hair. He was neither fat nor thin, and he had no imperfections on him. He was perfectly posed, like a CGI mouse. But I was holding him and he didn�t move.

I wiggled his little feet, which didn�t wiggle since he was both frozen solid and in rigor mortis.

Now, what is a kind hearted person like me to do when I find a cute little guy in perfect condition except that he is dead? What to do with the body?

It was ironic that I could have walked 20 feet and put him into a dumpster. I threw him into the water.

As close as I can figure, this young mouse was out scavenging last night and got cold. Rather than seeking shelter, he chose to hunker down and try to keep warm. He didn�t die while he was asleep, as his eyes were open. They weren�t wide open, but a little more than halfway open. Since he was facing the steps, it seemed when I walked up that he was looking at me. Eventually the cold must have gotten to the point that it shut down his little mousy system.

I�ve found another mouse in this same area in the past. It may have been two years ago. But that mouse was lying on it�s side with it�s eye�s closed. Both nights were very cold.