Tales from the Bark Side

By Keith Ross | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, December 22, 2007

Welcome back to the bark side of life here in Ottertail where a fire softly crackles in the wood stove and lights twinkle, blink, and flash in multicolored harmony.

Christmas is a big holiday around Rosswood and Santa has it marked on his day planner to make sure to drop by the night of the 24th.

Smooth jazz

Christmas songs play throughout the house and joy can easily be found by just listening.

I have an encore performance, this week, by a contributor from Perham, Connie Sanders. Last Christmas, she sent me two stories that fit perfectly in with the holiday theme and since it's that time of year again; let's re-visit a Siamese cat (which are known for being prolific mousers) that allowed amnesty for a small rodent — for awhile.

The Christmas mouse

Sam loved Christmas — the ribbons, the bows, and best of all, the ornaments with bells; all placed at the bottom of the tree just for her. Sam also loved to chase mice.

She was a terrific mouser and often presented the trophies to me. So I wasn't surprised when she walked into the living room with a mouse. What did surprise me was when she walked to the fireplace, put the mouse down and gave it a bath. Then the two snuggled together by the fire.

For the next three days, the two were inseparable. They played together, roamed the house together and always ended up sleeping by the fire. I became quite fond of the little mouse myself and twice, fearing for its safety, carried it to the woodpile in the back yard where his family lived.

Both times the little fellow scampered back across the snow, slipped under the house siding, and before I could get my coat off the two were sleeping by the fire.

On Christmas Eve day, I saw Sam go upstairs, the little mouse went to the kitchen, down the basement stairs and out. The last I saw of him, he was running across the yard to the woodpile to spend the holiday with his family. He had plenty of stories to tell.

Was it the spirit of Christmas? No doubt about it. In our house that Christmas it was, “Peace on earth, good will to mice and men!” It was a magical Christmas that I'll never forget, thanks to Sam and her Christmas mouse. Oh yeah, after the holidays, Sam was a terrific mouser.

Thanks Connie for that tale. Peace on Earth and good will to men isn't just for humans it seems. There are miraculous things that are beyond our comprehension some times and I just marvel at the world we live in. Creatures of kinds playing out their lives on William Shakespeare's stage comes to mind. Sam may have felt the spirit of Christmas much like his mistress.

Merry Christmas to you and yours and please have a safe and happy new year as well.

Keith Alan Ross writes from his home in New York Mills.