Mice are not nice

My favorite mouse of all time was never Mickey, it was/is Jerry. I love the Tom and Jerry cartoons because I like to see the little underdog (undermouse?) outsmart the big, mean

brutish cat. It was a love/hate relationship and always exciting, like some human marriages.

My first encounter with my own personal Jerry was in the middle of the night as I lay sound

asleep only to be awakened by something moving on the back of my neck. I put my hand over

the little creature and realized it was a mouse! I was about 10 years old. So what does a ten-year-old coward do when presented with such a terrifying situation? She screams bloody murder and her father comes to her bedside. What does a grown man do in such a situation? He takes the innocent little creature by the tail, opens the living room coal- stove door, and tosses it in.

I suffered a little bit of guilt over my part in this, but then realized that that little thing was not

so innocent after all because he chewed up one of my favorite pieces of sheet music-----would you believe it was entitled "Kamenoi Ostrow"? Honest.