Farewell, dear friend

It is with utmost horror that I have to report the ultimate demise of our dear fellow-resident of our cubicle, the Big Fat Gray Mouse. He stayed with us for longer than we care to admit (or perhaps it was his ancestor?) and had all the fun at our expense. Nevertheless, I feel his demise should not be treated with disrespect—even a filthy vermin who bites and tears apart your favourite school shirt on the eve of the most important official event deserves respect—so I shall pay tribute to him by reminiscing our encounters with the fine fellow.

We (the human dwellers of the cubicle) came to know of his existence the day we heard something making a metallic noise at 3 in the morning. At first, we had believed we were being haunted by either a human thief or an ectoplasmic ghost, but once it was confirmed that the species was not a human, living or dead, we had no option but to go after it with our slippers. In the beginning we meant no harm, we still believed in the sanctity of life, be it human or mice, but once we saw the dirty rascal had bitten into and contaminated our secret cache of noodles and dry fruits that we had saved for the exam-time, we had no other option but to try killing it. The day was lucky or the Mice: it escaped.

Since that day, we have had several more encounters with him, and most of them involved him running for his life while we tried a myriad of options to kill him. We tried poisoned biscuits—they were almost ingested by our human neighbours next door but not him, we tried the trap—we collected a few lizards and almost cut our fingers but had no effect on the mouse, and we tried the age-old Hit The Little Bugger With The Broom. We failed every time. We had almost resigned ourselves to living with that nutter who had, it seemed, vowed to make our lives miserable.

So perhaps it was our luck that the Principal’s house cat happened to be around, and decided to visit our cubicle. In a fashion probably not very different from Tom & Jerry’s the cat must have chased the mouse, pierced the soft skin with its claws, and eaten the internal organs. We were very sad to see the carcass of poor old fellow lying just outside the house, his intestines lying all around. It would be a lie to say we would miss that horrible creature, but live well, wherever you are Big Fat Gray Mouse!