Popsicle the Mouse

In the spirit of randomness and the love of a good story, I bring you the TRUE story of,

POPSICLE THE MOUSE.
(as told to Chloe and me at the Interpretive Center of Edisto Island, SC)

It was the sweet lady's first day on the job. Sweet lady LOVED animals and had chosen her job at the interpretive center for this reason and her love for sea life. Never in her wildest dreams would she anticipate that her job description would include feeding Tom the corn snake. Yet, at Tom's cage she finds herself. Eyes wide and tear filled as her boss shows her how to feed Tom. You see, Tom eats, well, Tom eats mice. Sweet Lady felt this was cruel (although natural) and would not be able to feed Tom. So her boss put a tiny white mouse into Tom's cage and watched.

The tiny mouse was actually Popsicle, only he didn't know that was his name just yet. This is where the story truly starts.

So Popsicle is in the cage with Tom. Ten minutes pass. Popsicle is still alive. An hour passes, still living.
Ten hours...Popsicle and Tom pleasantly cohabiting. TEN DAYS pass and Popsicle has set up shop on one side of the cage, Tom keeping to himself on the other side of the cage. Now, ten days is a highly unusual amount of time for a snake to allow it's dinner to live in it's cage, so Sweet Lady and her boss decide that this mouse is MEANT to live! (Chloe's theory is that Tom could tell that Popsicle was a very nice mouse, but maybe he did not smell very good.)

So, Popsicle gets a cage of his own. Complete with a cardboard box house and all the paper towels he could nibble through. Popsicle was living life until one day, the heat was not turned on in Popsicle's room and Sweet Lady feared that he had succumbed to hypothermia. With a sad heart and tear filled eyes, she carried Popsicle out to bury him. As she dug a small hole, she thought she saw his tiny foot twitch. NO, she had to be seeing things. Then it happened again. Sweet Lady began to massage the tiny cold mouse gently to warm him up. She placed him in her coat pocket for added warmth. A few hours later, guess who started peeking out of Sweet Lady's pocket...none other than...POPSICLE!!!

And that was over a year ago. He stays nice and warm now, but because of that chilly day, he will forever be known as Popsicle.