Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

13


Now at some point in my youth, I earned some money of my own and spent it at the pet store on some mice. Soon, it was more mice, and then, even more mice, and I got to see mice killing and eating other young mice. At this point I learned how to sex mice, having already learned why one should sex mice. You need two cages or container to sort them into, and you have to keep track of which container is which. Separating the males from the females only works if you get all of the males in one cage and all of the females in the other: no exceptions. One female in with the males means more mice. One male in with the females means a lot more mice-- a whole lot more mice.

Monday, June 7, 2010

12


Eventually, Basil was given to Apollonia, also known as Polly, another acting student at Cornish; Apollonia’s concern for it being injured by its food led her to believe that she needed to kill the live mice before feeding them. She would whack it on the frame of the door and then weep real tears for having murdered a small, helpless thing. And then seeing it wasn’t quite dead she’d have to whack it again. Basil grew under the care of this soft-hearted owner, but after a few more years she was passed along to us.