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.
The drawing is an illustration from a story I wrote in February 1974. The title of it is "Three Mice and a Dragon."
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