Mice

When I was 18 or 19, I was given two young mice (siblings) by my future sister-in-law. They were black above and caramel below and she said they were the same sex. I gave them a lovely home, cosy sleeping quarters, a wheel etc and intended to make an idyllic run for them with paths, hills and dales and plants. But before I could turn round, something strange happened and I saw one of mice lifting a tiny black bundle back into the sleeping quarters from whence it had obviously wandered. They'd had babies! The little ones were awfully cute and were soon wandering around. But before long, something dreadful happened:- I was a little late in feeding them one day - not a lot late, but obviously too late for the adult mice; I found one of the babies just a shred of fur and bone - they'd eaten it!!!!!

I went completely off them and took the whole lot to some woodland and set them free to do what the heck they liked in their incestual, infanticidal and cannibalistic fashion. Irresponsible I know as they were not field, house or farm mice.

Many, many years later I was driving near the same patch of woodland and a mouse ran across the road in front of my car, and here's the thing - it was black!

I feel like the idiot who introduced grey squirrels into England, I've mucked with ecology.

Oh, and I still don't like mice - except field mice with their big ears!

Well, I can honestly say that I don't blame you! I'm nit a mouse person.

We had (have?) some field mice in our garden & they're very cute & I sometimes quietly watch them gathering food. But in the house? No, I don't think so!

I always thought that mice were vegetarian until we saw one eating Bandit's meat one day!

Aww, bless!

I wouldn't worry too much if I were you! Hundreds of fancy mice get released into the wild by their owners, so yours probably wouldn't have made much of a dent! People make mistakes in their teens, not realising what they're doing.

Most fancy mice released into the wild won't get a chance to populate the earth, anyway. They're not as strong and fast as their wild cousins, so they'd be the little shy kids at the dance, too afraid to ask the girls to dance. Chances are that the one you saw had either just been released or was just a very dark wild mouse   

tbh Caryll I didn't keep the mice in the house - they were in a shed!

I'm glad you think I didn't muck up the local ecology, Eleanor!

I dont like mice   

It's the way they scuttle around, isn't it Lynne.

I did have a couple of hamsters when I was young, but never mice.