As a common rodent my short life nesting by the exhaust fan in the bathroom, might be considered a boring one. I was born a house mouse, no name was ever given to me. I knew only the touch and warmth of my mother and siblings as I was always blind. We would cuddle together to stay warm as we had yet no fur. Yesterday, some vicious birds must have heard us whimpering before feeding time and and tore off the plastic vent cover from the outside of the house.

They traveled down the vent hose. My mother told us to be quiet, but we don't know anything so we kept whimpering for some yummy milk. The crows then started to tear apart the vent hose to get at us. They struggled to break their way through but the wire in the hose entangled them. My mother tried to bite them but the birds easily clutched her and took her away.

As we laid hungry, cold and orphaned, the human must have heard the battle cries and stuffed a small geranium pot where the vent cover should have been. Within eight hours my five siblings and I expired, lonely, sad, our lives cut short by birds starting their spring nests. Life certainly was not fair for us.

This morning a kind gentle human neighbor came to replace the vent cover and torn exhaust hose.
As he reached in to clear away the debris his warm fingers touched our cold soft bodies. He snapped his hand back and said some foul words my young ears should not hear. Next thing I knew some big yellowy rubber gloves clutched us and placed us in a plastic grocery bag. Then I heard the garage door open as he hurled us through the air into the steel garbage can.

Yes my life was short and cruel, but I'll always remember my mother's milk, my siblings warm cuddles and the time we flew through the air like the birds who destroyed our little lives. Man, it's starting to stink in here!