When I got up, she had the waste basket in the kitchen and had given the mice some food and water. There was a mother and a baby, still nursing. The mother was friendly and would let Vivian pet her. The baby would jump out of her hand when she picked it up.

Vivian was concerned that there might be other babies who couldn't find their mother. She started searching and found a nest in one of her desk drawers. It was made of torn up scraps of cloth she didn't recognize and chicken feathers (easy to find around our house) and the bottom of the drawer was covered with wild bird seed (a treat the chickens enjoy).

She thought and worried for a half hour or so and then put the mother and baby in the nest and closed the drawer.

A few weeks passed and a baby mouse started visiting me each night when I work late. He runs across my desk, hides behind the monitor, peeks out at me, runs across behind the other monitor. This goes on a all night. Sometimes I put a few peanuts on the desk and he'll eventually run up and grab one - so fast that I rarely see him. Once, he grabbed one of my chopsticks and took it behind the monitor. I grabbed the other end and we both tugged a while. It's his now.

Last night I looked across my desk and noticed a video camera that my friend, Peter, gave me. I hooked it up when I first got it and found that it worked but I have never used it for anything. You guessed it! I got an idea! I searched around on the Internet and pretty soon found a program that would record video only when something moved. A few hours and a few programs later, I put a couple peanuts and a bowl of water on the floor and pointed the camera at it. Here's what I found when I checked the program a little later.

Now a few more weeks have passed and Kelly, Vivian's daughter, is here for Christmas. This morning she saw a little mouse trying to jump over the kick-plate at the base of the dishwasher. He kept trying but just couldn't make it. She picked him up and he stayed in her hand while I took a picture. Then she helped him get up to the spot he wanted and he disappeared behind the kitchen cabinets.

Now it's February and getting warmer here in Georgia, warm enough for the mice to live outside and we want our house back.

We started setting traps and putting the mice in an aquarium.

Surprise! They love the wheel. Some run while others just hang on and go round and round.

After a few weeks we had caught them all and we took them out in the woods. Now they have a new home.