4 ~ Wednesday, December 31, 1986 - North Shore News

THIS IS the story of our
pet mouse, Mickey, also
known as Frisky or Rat.

Emily calls him Mickey. I
wonder why? Emily is only two
and just starting to talk but she
watches TV already.

Willy, her eight-year-old
brother, who is the guy who sav-
ed the mouse in the first place,
calls him Frisky.

I just call him Rat.

Every once in a while I like to
lean over the cage and say: ‘‘Rat
on, Rat!’’

Willy, I should note, has had
several pet crabs, a pet caterpillar
named Friday, a pet ladybug,
and one spring he counted about
200 baby spiders as his pets. It
was just after seeing Charlotte's
Web for the first time.

Anyway, we were over visiting
my wife’s youngest sister and her
new boyfriend a while ago. He’s
got an -apartment overlooking
English Bay. Nice place.

1 like the new boyfriend, but
he’s into exotic pets, which is a
practice I have to gerierally frown
upon on philosophical grounds,
being an unrepentant animal
freak,

| The exotic pet in question was
a young boa constrictor, not
much more than a couple of feet
long.

{ Because it was young and
hadn't had time to be taught
s table manners by its parents, the
boa required a lot of attention at
feeding time. .

1 1 can’t help thinking of it a
“it,’? by the way. I didn’t actual-
ly find out whether it was male or
female, and I guess a bit of pre-
judice against cold-blooded crit-

Oniy Pacific Honda offers such an outstanding warranty
on select pre-owned cars!

1984 Toyota Tercel

4 dr., H/B, automatic
Pretty car, 49,000 km,

Yoand

1985 Honda Accord
Hatchback

5 spd., clean, perfect <ar

8,995

Bob Eiunter

@ strictly personal ®

ters factors in here.

The boa’s diet consisted of live
mice bought at a pet store. It's
not healthy for snakes to eat
dead stuff.

Think about this.

You'll notice mice never get
sold as pets. They only get sold
as pet food. People are really up-
tight about mice. Rats and
hamsters, sure. But mice? Never!

I didn’t watch the feeding cer-
emony. I thought: why put my
head through that? Saw too
many animal snuff flicks in my
time, I guess.

But Willy and Mom watched.
They must have teen proving
how strong their stomachs were.

The boa was in a large fish
tank. There were three mice.
They were lowered by their tails
into the tank. They ran around a
bit but mostly sat frozen stiff.

The boa got the first two
without much trouble — just
glided up to them, grabbed them
in its teeth, then looped a coil
around them and squeezed their
twitching little bodies to death.

It then began the delicate task
of swallowing them whole.

The third mouse, however,
reacted differently than the other
two. ‘

He sat perfectly still until the
last second. Just as the snake’s
fangs were springing like a trap
at him, he ducked lithely aside.

Mouse ju-jitsu!

The snake’s nose whapped
against the glass of the tank. For
a moment, it looked dazed. Then
it oozed angrily off in pursuit of
the mouse.

Six times, in all, the snake
struck. Six times it missed. Six
times it whapped the glass. The
mouse stood off to the side,

CHARGES are pending after a
West Vancouver couple returned
Sunday morning to find a man
sleeping in their bed.

At approximately 11:20 a.m.,
Dec. 28 a couple in the Cedardale
area found an 1!8-year-old male
asleep in their bed.

A West Vancouver Police in-

82 Mustang

2 dr., automatic,
low kmi's

TGR ety
84 Datsun Pickup
13,500 km, mint cond.
wicanopy

Selling quality, pre-owned

automobiles for 14 years!

(* 6/10 power train warranty on select used cars).

725 MARINE DRIVE

6,905

looking real cool, a bit fike a
matador who is fighting a bull in
close to the horns. i

Willy and Mom were cheering
for the little judo guy by then.
The boa’s owner was less than
happy, though. At this rate, his
precious exotic pet was going to
knock its brains out. He an-
nounced he'd have to flush the
mouse down the toilet.

At this point Willy stepped in.

“Don’t kill him, please, we'll
take hirn home!"" he begged.

Dad was less than thrilled, |
have to admit. In fact, | made
Wills pay me a dollar for my
services bringing the mouse home
in a take-out chicken box, just to |
make sure he really wanted to do
this.

The mouse, a.k.a. Frisky,
Mickey or Rat, lives a glorious
existence now in a hamster cage
complete with toilet rolls to make
nests in and a wheel to run in all
night if he likes.

Mom seems to do most of the
cleaning of the cage, | note, Dad
having established as a condition
of the mouse coming home that
he would not clean the cage ever,
under any circumstances.

There is another condition.
The mouse cannot be taken out
of the cage to play with because,
if he gets away, Dad will get out
the mouse poison and kill him,
along with the other couple of
dozen mice we are forced to
poison every spring, when they
start invading the cupboards,

We all love Mickey or Frisky
or whatever. We want to take
good care of him. And we are all
aware, except for Emily, that it’s
a jungle out there for mice.

But 1 guess Mickey knows that
already.

vestigation found that the suspect
had been. drinking the previous
evening, lost his way home and
had forced his way into the cou-
ple’s residence. He then crawled
into bed and fel! asleep.

Police sources said charges of
mischief and possession of narcotics
are expected to follow.

nw fai

month/1 km warranty*

can

N

on

82 Pontiac Firebird SE

Automatic, 83,000 km

84 Honda Prelude

5 spd., silver | 2,495

57,000 km.

RTH VANCOUVER

Traffic stopped on

Squamish

HIGHWAYS Department officials
advised traffic along the Squamish
Highway to avoid travel for an
hour Monday morning due to
heavy rainfalls that raised the
water level of creeks south of
Lions Bay.

Highways crews at the five bar-
ticades along the Squamish High-
way stopped traffic and advised
them to wait until the creek levels
subsided.

A yellow alert is still in effect
along the Squamish Highway,
assistant district manager Dan
Williams said Monday.

The alert means that Highways

Highway

Department observers watch
the wooden bridges along the
highway and crews sporadically
travel the highway looking for
fallen rocks.

The highway was on yellow alert
all weekend due to heavy rains.

JANUARY
DRAPERY SALE

Jan. 2nd to Jan. 25th

25% off
20% off

All Louver Drape Blinds
Cushions

Regular prices on all
drapery & sheer fabrics

Custom-made bedsprads
dacron & goose feather pillows

NOW 40% off
NOW 20% off

Capilano Draperies -

1641 Lonsdale, N.V.

buy with confidence!
cn eae

4985 Nissan Sentra

10,000 km., auto,
pertect second car

Pts!

RRS! :
84 Ford Mustang
Automatic, loads of
options, 36,000 km

988-5621

a month/10,000 km

AT NO EXTRA CHARGE
ASK YOUR SALESPERSON

FOR DETAILS