Of mice and magpies

[simon624]

A while ago we had a small problem with mice in our loft at home. I don't know how they got in as there was no obvious route or point of entry, but they say that if a hole is big enough to fit a pencil in, then it is big enough for a mouse to get through. Anyway, in order to resolve the problem I decided against any 'permanent solution' and bought a humane trap to catch the little buggers before they multiplied and ate through all my wiring. It didn't take long to catch the first one, so now all I had to do was release it. You can't just go outside into the garden and let it go as it'll just find it's way back in again. The recommendation is to take it at least one mile away to prevent it returning. So I took it to the other side of town where there is a large-ish field with some fairly dense undergrowth round the edges and released it. Fine.
The next day I had re-baited my trap and caught mouse#2. I thought that it would only be fair to release it in the same place as the first one, so off I went. This time, however, when I released the mouse he didn't run into the undergrowth as the first, but along the pavement and then into the road. Just as I was thinking that if he doesn't get his act together soon he'll get run over, a magpie flew down from out of a tree and in one move neatly intercepted and picked up the running mouse. Blimey! I thought, I wasn't expecting that.
When I got home my wife said to me 'Did you let the mouse go ok?'
'Yes, well, sort of' and I told her what had just happened with the magpie.
Feeling somewhat sorry for the mouse and his fate my wife offered, a little tonge-in-cheek 'Perhaps the magpie was just going to give him a ride home'
'Perhaps' I said. ' You never know'

[Twitcheruth]

Ha ha......great story Simon,poor mouse.....it just wasn't his day was it!