A CHAT FROM LONDON: The agitated mouse in the London underground

They watched the mouse; and well, it was a mouse.

Indeed.

One always sees mice on these railway platforms. You would think they would be in pairs or groups but if it is alone then something happened.

“Is it lotht?”

A lady with a French accent and a lisp wondered. The mouse was moving around restlessly; sniffing, like animals do.

“We humans have lost the ability to use our noses,” he said, watching the small animal dashing and stopping, dashing and halting. Fast tiny, tiny, paws.

“Yes because our brains work faster than the senthes,” The lady with a lisp and a French accent chuckled. They laughed. A lady nearby quickly turned her phone towards the black- grey rodent.

It was a week before Christmas.

The platform was filled with waiting passengers. The schedule announced next train would be here in two minutes so- the tiny creature had about 100 seconds to vanish. The woman with the phone was now zooming into the mouse, inclining her Samsung S6, vying and trying - a good close up.

The man and the French lady watched her, then looked at each other, shook their heads, smiled and back into the mouse. Seeing mice in the London underground trains is nothing special though. According to official sources half a million mice have made the London underground trains their home.

As 60 seconds remained, the lone mouse sprinted under the metal seats of waiting passengers. There was no space to disappear. It whisked to the edge of the platform where the train tracks are. Here you normally see mice. But why it resisted jumping into the track was puzzling. Probably it sensed a train was due any second so decided to scramble back to the smooth cement of the platform.

The woman with the phone was biting her lips as she snapped pictures.

“I wonder what she is doing here.” She asked

“How do you know it is a she?” The man asked

French lady with a lisp laughed. “She moves thoooo elegante!”

“I think she is distressed. What a stressed life!” The man said.

Ten seconds remaining and the computer above warned in red: BEWARE TRAIN APPROACHING – the advancing sound was loud, mouse scampered towards them, but changed mind; bolted back.

Here was the train: close, huge, menacing, an imposing human made machine. Mouse suddenly changed course, when the train finally stopped. As passengers stepped towards the opening doors, mouse seemed in a hell of heightened powered euphoria. A very high pitched scream flew out of one of the female passenger’s mouth as she almost stamped onto the distressed animal.

A short, sharp scream.

Somewhat mouse found new energy, creatively raced in between legs of equally bewildered passengers, onto a wall, fast, underneath a small opening of doors.

Normally the electric doors are for emergency purposes. The sign “Entry Prohibited”- leered but a mouse is a mouse, is a mouse...

Incidentally, in the updated 2006 TUKI Swahili dictionary, the word mouse is translated as “Panya.”

When I first came to the UK, I used to think a mouse was just a small rat. Rats are bigger and different. Looking up at the technical difference, I found out rats and mice are not scientific classifications, but name variations. One source said a rat has long tail and small ears, with many types: kangaroo rats, African pouched rats, Polynesian rats, cotton rats. Mice have long thin tails too, but bigger ears. You have field mice, house mice, deer mice, spiny mice, etc.

So the three continued talking while looking at images on the Samsung phone.

The French lady went “Oh la! La! La! ...it really looks dithtrethed.”

The man said: “We complain about stressed lives but these creatures have much more stress than us.”

“Yes. I wonder why she came there.” The photographer said, consistent with gender of the animal.

“Foraging for food. Looking for a mate? Maybe it was lotht?”

The three stayed quietly for a few seconds, while the ta-tta- tta-t tatatta...rumbling train kept storming under the London underground.

French lady broke the silence: “In Thpain they have introduced a new law that will treat animals as beings. Not objects.”

Objects?

“Yes. It means they have a right to be regarded as creatures with emotions and to sthreth them will be conthidered a crime.”

Interesting.

The same Spanish regulation based around the Civic Code is also active in Portugal and France. Animals have same rights as us humans.

The man thought of the Happy Cows project in the UK which treats cows well. Allows them out to roam. Massages them. Plays calm, classical music for cows. Their milk and meat is more expensive than normally mistreated cows, because it tastes better.

And on that positive note, I wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy new year, dear reader.