A mouse came to visit me at my home office. The next day I drove it to Marie Curtis Park.

Durance family by Etobicoke Creek. Photo credit: Durance family © Durance family and Robert Lansdale

I saw a mouse at my home office on May 5, 2015. I saw it several times that evening. I was wondering why it didn’t run off as soon as it saw me. On the morning of May 6, 2015, at 6:30 am, I saw the mouse again.

When I saw it one more time in the morning, it wasn’t moving very fast at all. It could barely drag itself around.

What is now Marie Curtis Park, as it appeared in 1947 (detail). Photo credit: Durance family © Durance family and Robert Lansdale

I found a yogurt container and a lid and scooped up the mouse and drove it to Marie Curtis Park. When we got to the park and I took the lid off of the container, it was clear to me that the mouse was on its last legs.

I was also aware that Marie Curtis Park was a better place for the mouse to be, at this stage of its life, than at my home office.

The park in the spring with the grass and trees turning green is a better place, by far, for a mouse to be at the end of its life, than at my home office.

The photos that accompany this post are from an April 30, 2012 blog post at the Preserved Stories website, entitled:

We’re pleased to share with you these 1920s to 1940s ‘cottage country’ images from Etobicoke Creek