Through the Mouse’s Eyes

What can I tell you. I am a Mouse, but my humans used to call me silly names like "Squeek" and "Mousie". Humans are strange. I am not a squeek or a mousie, I am a Mouse. But they don’t know this, they can’t even hear or understand me. They talk in that funny speech of theirs and make no effort to understand rodents. They fed me good, that I’ll admit. I had grains, apples, cheese - they gave me everything that a Mouse could want. I had plenty of play space, too. Back then, they wouldn’t let me play outside which was a shame. I was an in-house Mouse.

It all started long time ago when I lived in a busy place with all kinds of other creatures - hamsters, rabbits, fish, ferrets (ooh, I didn’t like those), cats (hated those, too) and dogs. As for myself, I used to live in a big glass thing with a lot of my own kin. People would come in to take a look at us, sometimes taking one or two of us home. They would take those little colored fish and those rude hamsters (don’t imagine why anybody would want them for anyway) and dogs and cats, too. I always wondered where the humans take them. Then one day it finally happened to me as well - two humans came and had fun watching me run on my wheel. Then they put me in a little paper house, and I got terrified! I hadn’t ever been outside of my glass place! I tried to eat my way out of the paper, but they talked softly to me, so I stopped. After a rather bumpy trip, which shook me all over, we came to their living place. They instantly dumped me into a nice den with a new wheel inside and left me there by myself with some food and water. So I explored, and after some time, I wasn’t afraid anymore. I understood that this was to be my home. Later on I got used to playing with my humans - there are four of them, two big ones and two little ones. The little female liked me a lot, and what happened wasn’t really her fault.

I used to run in a big open place where they put their stuff. I considered it my play space because they would always let me play in there. She usually supervised me, so that I wouldn’t eat something that I wasn’t supposed to. I sure loved those big things made out of fabric they like to sit on. But when I tried to eat a piece, she cupped me in her hand and bribed me with tasty food so I wouldn’t do it. I liked the food, but I didn’t think it was practical to put these things in my way and then expect me not to nibble at them. One could sniff these (they smelled wonderful), make bedding from them, but humans wouldn’t have it. There were other wonderful things there and other wonderful smells, but in my opinion, I couldn’t enjoy all that properly back then. Like I said, humans are strange creatures.

What I didn’t like was that big tall wooden thing that closed and opened. Humans use it to come in and out of their many living spaces. You never knew when it was going to open, so I tried to keep away from it as much as I could. The little human female who supervised me had to open it when she wanted to put me back into my den. I usually hid from her because my house was so much more boring than this big play space. I would peep out of my hiding spot under the big fabric sitting thing until she found me.

Then one time something happened. I was running around that big heavy opening thing this time. It’s not very dangerous while it’s closed, you know, and I felt daring that day. After a while, it carefully opened and my little human female came in, looking for me. She looked and looked, but I had already hid under that thing I mentioned before, they call it "soh-fah" or something like that. Then I decided to be adventurous and peek at the world that was behind the big wooden thing. I knew it was off limits for me, but I wanted to know anyway. Maybe they had secret loads of cheese there!

Either way, I decided to try. The little female soon lost her patience and decided that she’ll find me later. That gave me a chance to sneak up to the wooden thing just as she was closing it. But maybe I was too slow or it was too fast- I felt a sudden sharp pain in my neck and then darkness. I heard her faint cry from far away and then other humans’ voices, also faint and far away. Then came the wonderful white light. It enveloped me and I felt like I was rising up and above where there was no pain, just a wonderful peace and light.

I am a free Mouse now. I still come to see my humans and I’d like to see my den again with my wheel in it, but it is gone. I guess they can’t see me anymore and they think that I am not coming back. But I am here- I can go as I please, even to those forbidden areas, which aren’t all that great anyway. The little female feels bad, I can tell. She thinks about me at night, when I sit on her covers and whisper to her. She feels like she killed me. But I am very happy. I am still with her, even though she can’t see me. I know she wants another Mouse friend. Maybe I’ll live again and cross her path, so we can be together again. I am surely going to stay away from the big closing thing this time. Plus, it’ll be good to be reborn just to taste cheese again.

I wrote this story when my sister's mouse died. My sister accidentally killed her and was feeling very guilty, so I wrote this story for her to make her feel better.