25 August 2007

Mouse glut – the rodent drama continues

Work on the potager project began in earnest today. As part of this, I had to dismantle one of my compost bins so it could be moved. The top was filled with only partially decomposed matter and was a bit twiggy, so I shovelled it all out into the wheelbarrow to go into the other compost bin, all nicely aerated and ready to break down further. Underneath was gorgeous, dark, crumbly compost, inviting and fertile. I was checking this out with my gloved hands and was surprised to see movement. Movement followed by two very small, whiskery noses. Baby mice, healthy, intact and inquisitive, with their eyes still closed and no doubt very scared to discover me in their home.

I can be a bit soft when it comes to animals and I’m no different around mice. They don’t make me scream or yelp. I actually think they’re a bit cute. I don’t mind rats much either. Though I wouldn’t want to sit down at the dinner table with one. Anyway, this meant I was in a bit of a dilemma about what to do. Clearly I had disturbed a nest, but the compost bin had to be moved. I couldn’t just lift them out and put them down on the ground as I was worried they would end up getting rotovated later in the day. I know, I know – they’re only mice. Some people pay good money to find ways of killing them and there’s me worrying about how to keep them alive.

In the end I scooped them into a box along with some of the compost they were snuggling down into and kept them out of the way. As I continued to dismantle the compost bin a much larger mouse (mum? dad?) scurried away and hid behind the other compost bin. This was encouraging – there was still hope they could be looked after! I moved a few more bits of debris and then found yet another baby, straying dangerously close to territory where it would get trod on. I picked him (or her – how do you sex a mouse?) up and put him with what I assumed were his siblings and carried on.

A short while later on, I crawled on my hands and knees into the neighbours’ undergrowth next to the fence by the compost bin. There I put some shredded paper, the compost and the three babies. I’m hoping – ridiculously, I know – that the adult mouse has stuck around and will recognise them and take them somewhere safe – there are lots of covered nooks and crannies there. I’ve been leaving them alone, but when I last checked they were gone so hopefully they are fine.

There was a scary moment when our cat decided she wanted to help herself to a live lunch, but we banished her indoors for a time. She’s utterly disgusted with me.

I realise that in all likelihood the mice will die and there are probably plenty of you out there reading this who think that would be no bad thing. And let’s face it, I will probably end up kicking myself when I start sowing broad beans only to have them sneakily dug up and eaten by this lot’s whiskery compatriots. So I do realise that I’ve been foolish to take such pains to try to save them. It’s not that I’m particularly sentimental when it comes to animals – no really, I’m not. But I do try respect life (any vegetarian readers will surely be shocked by that statement, given that I am still a committed carnivore), even the lives of pesky little rodents.

Slugs are the exception, and even then I get pangs of guilt, but such is the extent of their evil that I am able to set aside my principles and kill them off anyway. Perhaps I would feel differently if they had whiskers.

Filed under: Potager project, Wildlife — Clare @ 7:10 pm