The Further Adventures of Cyril
Cyril plots his revenge
Cyril crouched in his nest at the back of the mailbox, plotting his next move. Four times now, he had been swept from his new home by a stick, and four times he had returned. The last few times, his tormentor had tried to trap him in a cardboard box, but he had escaped each time, either by leaping to one side of the box and scurrying off into the underbrush, or simply spring free of the box with his tiny, powerful legs.
Thus far, his revenge for these insults had been limited to chewing on the roots of new trees that he’d found planted near the mailbox. The vicious hound that patrolled the area between the
The vicious rodent hound on patrol
mailbox and the garage had kept him from sabotaging the pickup truck as he’d intended. But now he thought he’d devised a way to work his way around the cunning beast. His friend Bob the groundhog had offered to guide him around the long route of the driveway, in return for some chewed-up pieces of mortgage payments. The only question now was whether he should chew through the brake lines first, or go to work on air conditioning first to lengthen his vengeance.
Suddenly, the door to the mailbox opened. Cyril readied himself to leap to safety, but a hand, clad in tough cow-hide, grasped him and hurled him into a container. For a moment, he panicked, then as everything went dark, he realized that the smell of cat litter did not presage the appearance of his old enemy.
There were a series of strange noises, and Cyril suddenly realized that he was moving. For a time, the bumping and shaking continued, then it ceased, and Cyril crouched, waiting to make a bid for freedom. He sprang free at the first glimpse of sunlight,then stopped, looking around. The landscape was unfamiliar; there were no cows to be seen for one thing. As the truck pulled away, he sat up on his hind legs and looked around for a new mailbox.
We tried that with a rabbit once. Another one took its place. They are legion. Have you tried building another mailbox?
I don’t know. Building in pairs works with bluebird houses, but I don’t think field mice are territorial. I assume Cyril would just set himself up as rodent landlord and rent out the second mailbox to a mole or something. Or did you mean build a mailbox that a mouse can’t get into? I think that’s impossible, because my current one is nearly airtight.