An Incredible Journey

It was looking like the best blogging opportunity for a long time. One amazing journey for one ordinary mouse. But Disney would certainly have written a happier ending.

I'd given the mice a bit of a tough love choice. Feed yourselves using the humane trap, or the particularly lethal neck-breaking trap. Either way, eat in my room and your life will change dramatically. And at 3am I discovered it had worked.

Last time I cleverly diguised my mouse carrier as a bag of shopping, and set off to release it in leafy Borehamwood. I re-enacted the journey, resolving to photograph it on every stage of the trip, culminating in the dramatic release video. Maybe sarcastically dubbed with the soundtrack of Born Free. I was musing on how I'd present this as I was observed by two drunk men photographing my cargo on the 460 bus at 8.20am.

"Why's he taking a picture? It's a bag of shopping?" A faint scratching sound threatened to give me away, and I smiled smugly.

I put my passenger down on the seat next to me and took the fast train to Borehamwood. It was a lot less scary than the first time. I carried it gently down to the high street, headed to the cemetary, and got the camera ready to capture the release spot.

Under the tree looked ideal. It had shade, shelter, plenty of leaves to eat, and half a decomposing mouse. It looked oddly like the one I'd released two weeks ago. My enthusiasm for the blogging project evaporated, and I felt a strange feeling in my stomach. I put the phone away, put on my mouse-handling gloves, and moved to a slightly different spot.

As it ran off, it looked at its comrade, and shot me a look before disappearing at high speed. I don't have the guts to go back to see if there's now two dead mice.

I'm wondering if it would be more moral to drown the next one.