SIFAKA BLOG

One night, a mouse climbed the curtain in my bedroom. When he reached the top of the curtain he popped his little head up and gave a very loud squeak. He seemed startled to see humans, and we were very surprised that he was just sitting and staring at us! I tried to go to sleep, but Jeremiah was very busy and loud. He kept climbing the curtains and squeaking. When I was almost asleep, I felt something climb on top of me. I shook around to scare the mouse away and I fell asleep.

Later I woke up and felt the mouse cuddled against my leg, but I was too sleepy to do anything about it.
In the morning I got up and started to make my bed. As I folded my blanket, Jeremiah jumped out of the blanket and onto the floor. When I finished making my bed, he hopped back onto my bed and sat right next to me!

When I got back to my room the next night, Jeremiah was still there! It is not good to have a mouse live in your room, so I caught him so that we could release him outside. I took the little mouse to Dennis who knows a lot about small animals. Dennis showed me how to tell how old a mouse is and whether a mouse is a boy or girl. I found out that Jeremiah was a young male tree mouse (Thallomys paedulcus). Dennis and I took him out into the tall grass, wished him the best of luck, and let him go. Hopefully, he is doing well out there. I'm glad we got to meet Jeremiah so that we could learn more about the small mammals that live here at the Cheetah Conservation Fund.