The cat did it

In Rhodesia during the early ’70s us school kids went through a phase (actually, we went through loads of them), and in this case it was white mice. These cute little things were sold for 25 cents at Leslie’s Pet Shop in down town Salisbury. I didn’t clock that they were actually for feeding pet snakes, but some of us thought the mice would make real cool playmates.

After some kid brought one to school, hiding in his pocket, I wanted one too. So after painfully saving up my pocket money (or thieving more of my old school uniforms to flog), I got myself a mouse. I kept it in draw in my bedroom. I always kept my bedroom door closed because our Persian long haired cat Jeanie (named after the TV show, and who in their right minds would purchase such an animal in the middle of Africa), spent hours sitting in front of the entrance to my room.

Well, unfortunately, I hadn’t clocked that the back of the drawer was a little short. The mouse got out, Julia the maid went into my room to give it a quick hoover and the rest of the mouse story is history. Goodbye 25 cents.