Of Mutant Mice and Rats....

Some of you may already be aware, but I was having quite the problem with mice out here in the Fouta. It started off with a harmless, rather cute little mouse in Ourossogui which rapidly grew into a raging, adolescent hulk of a rodent that ate my granola bars, chewed up my clothes, pooped everywhere, and ran around like a heffalump all night. Having already experienced a cockroach trapped under my sheets, I was not eager to repeat it with something furrier, so Jenna and I set about trying to rid ourselves of our unwanted room mate. Unfortunately, the Senegalese are rather apathetic towards mice, and the guard litterally laughed in my face when I told him we were trying to get rid of it. The only good part about our mouse (or "Sancho" as I liked to call him) was that he was very territorial and would never let another mouse enter his territory. He would actually conduct full-on, blood-sport death matches with other mice in the middle of the room - Jean Claude Van Damme would have been proud. When I left for Ndioum, I thought that it would be the end of my mouse problems, as I was moving even deeper into the desert. It was not the case, however, as Africa seems to have produced some of the scariest rodents in existance (just ask my mom and Cruger - in Zanzibar they mistook a rat for a large cat. That's not a happy mistake to make). My room was invaded by two mice this time, whom I refered to a Boris and Natasha - while they were very good at getting all of my food from inside sealed containers, they were exeptionally loud about the whole process. I had a couple of mouse traps sent over to me by the Zukotynskis, how ever Boris and Natasha perfected the art of stealing all the food without setting off the trap, which is the ultimate mouse caper. They were still running loose when I had to leave for Christmas, and I had visions of protein bars strewn all across the floor and my cloths ripped to shred. Imagine my surprise instead when I found these two camping out in the back of our compound:
They must have been born sometime while I was away. I call them Themistocles and Thermopylae - don't ask - I'm the only toubab living in Ndioum, so I'm a bit worried for my sanity as well. They have singlehandedly decimated the mouse and rat population of the office, so I try to sneak them left over fish when I can. They're rather feral - they run away at the sight of people, but I suppose they are the best pet I could have hoped for here in Ndioum. Next up is convincing Seydou (my boss) that we need a dog as we don't have a guard...I'll let you know how that one goes.