Edward's Watch Mouse Experiment

Part 10: Squiggles and the Chicken Shop

With Squiggles safely contained out the back of our town house, all seemed well. To counter his enormous appetite, Mum and Dad would bring home large quantities of leftover chicken from the shop. Squiggles developed a liking for greasy fried chicken - probably not the healthiest option, but it would have to do for now.

It just so happened that Jim's Gym was having a summer clearance sale of all their old and outdated equipment. We bought at bargain prices a treadmill, ski machine, exercise bike, posing mirror and a weight bench with an assortment of weights for Squiggles to resume his exercise regime and burn off all those extra calories from the fried chicken. Squiggles was very appreciative - particularly towards Dad, who had set up a makeshift gym for him in the courtyard. There was even a Minnie Mouse calendar!

In fact, over time Squiggles developed greater affection towards Dad. Poor Dad couldn't go out the back door without Squiggles knocking him down and kissing him with his big, wet, pink nose. Occasionally we would let Squiggles inside for short periods of time. This was torture for Dad, especially after a day at the chicken shop. All Dad wanted to do after these long and exhaustive days was to flop in his lounge chair and read the paper, but with Squiggles sitting on his knee it was near impossible.

One morning, Squiggles managed to chew his way through the netting in our courtyard and follow Dad on his walk to work, obviously keeping out of sight. At home we didn't even notice Squiggles was missing when we went to see Dad a little later that morning, just before the shop was due to open.

We arrived together and Dad let us in the front entrance. 'Hi, how's Squiggles?'
'We forgot to check on him,' Mum answered. 'I'm sure he'll be okay.'

I could smell the new batch of chicken cooking out the back in the kitchen and went to investigate. It was there I saw something unusual and quite alarming. 'Mum...Dad...I think you'd better get back here quickly.' I called out.

Mum, Dad and Alyssa rushed to the back of the shop, probably expecting the chicken to be burning.

All four of us stood stunned as we saw Squiggles sitting upright in the corner of the kitchen eating whole, freshly prepared chickens like they were popcorn.

'How did he get in here and...and...how did he get here at all?' Dad asked with alarm.
'He must have chewed through the netting, or knocked down the fence again,' said Mum. Dad continued as Squiggles popped another whole chicken into his mouth, 'If the health inspector saw this, that would be it, no more chicken shop! Inspectors don't like mice or rats at the best of times. What would happen if they saw a fat, bloated two metre tall mouse in the corner of the kitchen gorging itself?'

We all knew what would happen and Dad had answered his own question. There would be no more chicken shop and Mum and Dad would be out of business, never to work in the chicken industry again.

Mum, Alyssa and I took Squiggles home on a new lead we had bought after Squiggles escaped the first time, while Dad cooked some more chickens to replace the forty-two Squiggles had eaten. Because it was now mid- morning, people were out going about their daily duties. We were given the strangest looks as we walked Squiggles back home. He was quite obedient on a lead and we gathered that people must have thought Squiggles was some strange breed of dog.

At home we noticed that Squiggles had indeed chewed through the netting. So that night, Mr Maddocks helped Dad repair the netting and they put on another layer in the hope that it would prevent Squiggles from escaping and going on another chicken eating binge!

Unfortunately the worst was yet to come that day, well for me anyway. Do you know what happens when a giant mouse devours forty- two whole chickens in one sitting? Do you really know what happens? I didn't just have Mount Kosciusko to clean up, I had the entire Great Dividing Range!