Generational Mouse Girl

 The other day, my wife, my sibling, and I went to dinner at my parents' house. We played Nertz and ate brownies and then, before we left for the evening, my mother brought out a box and revealed...



Her mouse collection. 

Growing up, my mother had a Mickey Mouse collection that include, amongst other things, a sweater (that I have since stolen), two watches, Christmas decorations, and a toaster that would singe Mickey's silhouette into your toast. What she revealed the other night, though, was that her collection had started as a general mouse collection. 

My mother was given two pet mice, both girls, for one birthday as a child. The tragic story is that on the very first day one of her friends accidentally stepped on one of the mice cutting its short life tragically shorter. Shortly after, she was given another mouse, this time a male, and the surviving mouse along with this new mouse reproduced shortly thereafter. She had pet mice for years after. I suppose this is why when my sibling and I were kids she thought to give us pet mice. 

I had pet mice throughout most of my childhood and two separate occasions in high school. Then, as I moved into college and from apartment to apartment in my early twenties, I went years without having pet mice, up until I moved in with my sibling at 28. 

My vision for this blog involved waxing poetic about individual mice in my life but, sadly, I've realized that I don't remember all of the mice in my childhood that well, and I hardly have any photos of them to share with you. 

In my next post, though, I'll tell you a bit about the mice had throughout my childhood, the things that I remember about them, at least. For now, I'll leave you with this: 

I got my love of mice from my mother and, like her, I now have a mouse collection of my own: 

This is the first mouse in my collection; a Mrs. Claus gave this mouse to me when I was incredibly young (six maybe?) at a pancake breakfast when I told her that my pet mouse, Karai, had recently died. She replied, "I know, which is why I brought this for you," and produced this little cat-toy mouse to me. It was truly magical. 



This print was gifted to me by mother; I love it! It has Brambly Hedge vibes. The four Calico critters are an extravagant purchase I made in 2022; my wife and I had a "woodland creature" themed wedding and collected several Sylvanian figurines for decorations. After months of thinking about it, I spent $50+ to have these four little guys shipped from the UK. They didn't arrive in time for the wedding, but they ARE a cute addition to our home and I have loose plans for featuring them in a webcomic I may or may never get around to writing. 


My wife gifted me this mouse print for Christmas '21. Now it hangs in our bedroom. It's beautiful.


This is the bulk of my mouse collection. On the left side of the photo, you can see three small white mice. These were part of my mother's collection that she graciously gifted me. Next you will see two stones, one that says "Sage" and the other that says "Luna." These aren't mice, however, Sage and Luna were two pet mice I had. I lost them within a month of each other in 2020. It broke my heart and my wife made these two little stones to remind me of them. Next, you will see three mouse figurines. My sibling made me these for Christmas '22, in memory of (from left to right) Marigold, Goblin, and Sprout, all of whom I lost in 2022. Looking over them, you can see a photo of Marigold peeking out between two buttons of my shirt. Lastly, there is a large white mouse puppet. I have had this since I was a child; I believe I either bought it at Brookside Toy and Science or KD's Books, but I am not sure. 

On the night that my mom shared her mouse collection with us, as we were driving home, my wife observed, "I didn't know you were a second generation mouse girl." I think about whenever I glimpse a part of this collection (this isn't even all of it! I have more figurines, Christmas decorations, and picture books all mouse themed!) I'm a second generation mouse girl, with, officially, a multigenerational mouse collection.



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