Bear Mice

No, No, Bear! NO, NO!

Bear! If there are any more mice in there, cough 'em up right now mister!!

Saturday, Mrs. FC, Junior, and faithful Junior buddy Jonathon, spent all day working in the yard, house, and barn while I was out of town. It seems they noticed all the little jobs that had been piling up on my "to do" list and decided to knock them out for me as an early birthday gift.

Bear was present during all of this of course, ... chasing chickens, catching chickens, being chased by Junior to rescue chickens, wandering off, being searched for, shredding things, moving neatly stacked trash back into the yard, and generally driving the good deeders crazy.
I missed all this, but I can relate as this post was prepublished briefly thanks to a Bear paw and the writing of the post was interrupted by a good 15 minute chase through the woods when a certain hard headed dog refused to come when called.



Anyway ... where was I? Oh, yes ... a mouses tale.

Late Saturday afternoon, Mrs. FC called me to tell me that Bear had discovered a Momma field mouse with babies during the clean out of the barn area. Before they could stop him he scooped up the mouse madre with babies clinging to her back and took off.
Junior and Mrs. FC gave chase of course.
Bear responded with that "YES! A GAME OF KEEPAWAY!" look and easily outran them even with a mouth full of mice.

When they finally caught him, the mice were gone and he was in some trouble.
But then, Mrs. FC found a tiny minimouse by backtracking the chase route. So she, Junior, and Jonathon brought it inside and placed it in a little Tupperware container with some bedding material. The lid was perforated for air and snapped on securely.

The young mouse took some half and half with honey through a syringe, and then fell asleep, no doubt exhausted from it's harrowing adventure.


Later, she called me back to say she had walked into the kitchen where the mouse container sat upon the counter to find the mouse on the floor. So, she scooped it up and popped open the Tupperware container only to find the original mouse still where she had left it.


Now there were two baby mice. Where the second one came from is a bit of a moustery. Was it clinging to Bear somehow and they missed it in his dense, dark fur?



Or, did he keep it in that soft Lab mouth of his unbeknownst to them?

I guess, we will never know, but as of today, there are two tiny mouse snuggled in the kitchen awaiting eventual release at some distance from the house.


Of course, while all this Ursus versus Mouse chaos was occurring, I was across the state in St. Augustine. It was a chore weekend at Mom and Dad's for me. The gutters needed cleaning out and a huge, wickedly prickly holly needed to be pruned back from electrical wires and the eaves of the house.

I did get to the beach after working though and Mom fed me roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and fresh green beans so it wasn't all work and no play.



And... there were those 100 Toll House cookies she bakes me every year about this time. I swear they deserve their own post. The ultimate cookie.



Back to the beach ...


Which gull above is menopausal?
Any husband who has literally frozen alive while his ... ahem, mature wife complained about the heat, can answer the question for you.

Saturday was cold and windy in St. Augustine, so of course I pointed the JEEP towards the beach after I finished cleaning out the gutters at Mom and Dad's house.

The last time I did that, it was cold, windy, misty, and grey. Saturday had only the first two characteristics beneath a brilliant blue sky and bright sun.





The Ruddy Turnstones were wading about feeding while the gulls were mostly resting, bills tucked in tight for warmth. Of course, here in Florida, we don't have stones, so these are Ruddy Turnshells while on their winter vacation.

Other important things we should talk about since I missed posting for two days ... the horror!

• It seems that Wren and the nice folks at Nature Blog Network have picked ol' FC for an interview ... this is my 15 minutes of fame and I'm soaking it up. Thanks Wren for thinking of Pure Florida!
• Porki, the FFA pig is recovering nicely from pneumonia and she sends her thanks for all your concerned comments.
• I missed announcing my oldest buddy Kevin's birthday back on January 12. I always razz him here at PF on that day and totally let it slip this year. Kevin, I'm not worthy.
• Dad's broken leg is seemingly mending well, he's not in pain, but he is restless due to the need to stay off of it. It's been a month now and he goes to the Doc on Wednesday, so I will update y'all on his progress. Mom is taking great care of him and working hard, but she is doing great too.
• This last news is something I have been sitting on, waiting to get a picture of the happy couple, but we don't cross paths that often and I have failed to get that shot. So, I'll go ahead and spill the beans now ... my big brother is getting married to a wonderful woman next month and we are all thrilled and awestruck as we had given up hope on this guy ever getting married. He hit the jackpot this time as Annette is a sweetheart. I'm sure you will see wedding pictures here sometime next month.