We had a moment a few weeks ago that has stayed with me, gnawing on my conscience once in a while and leaving me scratching my head at the memory.

The car had been idle for a couple of weeks and left in the garage.  It was time to take it out but we knew once it was started that something had taken up residence under the hood.  There was an unmistakable gaminess that emanated when the A/C was turned on but I was terrified to open the hood, not so much that the thing might be dead but more than it might not be quite dead.

The opened hood didn’t reveal the source until T noticed something moving.  A mouse fell out from underneath the panel near the front left tire.  It wasn’t just a mouse, it was a mouse giving birth to another mouse.  Right at that moment.  The mother took off and the baby came out, running around frantically in the gravel until I picked it up by the tail and put it gently in the ditch, the direction that the mother had run.

When I got back in the car another little mouse ran down from behind the gas pedal.  I picked him up and put him where I’d left the other one.  T said they probably nested in the air conditioner fan enclosure.

I can’t imagine what the rpms are on that kind of fan.  What a way to come into the world, literally spun out of your mother’s womb and into a strange and unfamiliar place, no mother, no nest.   I like to think that they found each other but I doubt it.

Here.  Have a look at this delicious home made pizza to take your mind off that tiny tragedy.