betty

the day before yesterday i went into my kitchen, turned on the light and surprised a large mouse.

now, you don't live in the county and not have mice, especially in winter, and especially if you don't have a cat.

so i periodically check drawers and crevices for evidence of mice and i hadn't been seeing any.

...until sometime a couple of weeks ago when i made myself a salmon fillet and typically i leave dishes undone at night because i'm all out of energy then and sometimes when i'm done eating my evening meal i just leave the dishes where i ate because i live alone and nobody cares if i leave things out until morning.

but i woke up and the plate was still there, but the salmon skin was gone.

and i hadn't remembered cleaning up the salmon skin but not the plate. i sort of shrugged my shoulders, but i also checked my bags of rice and flour and beans and such for evidence of mouses, but there just wasn't any of the telltale signs.

until saturday morning when i turned on the light in the kitchen and surprised a very large, sleek, and healthy field mouse who kind of gave me a bad look as if to say "what?  what are you doing in MY kitchen?"

now, i've sen a lot of wild mice and as a species they tend to run low on personality, but this one has a look about her. she had more of a personality than some pets i've had.

so i named her betty.

she will be pleased to know we're having salmon again this week.