Farewell

Diddy Kong died yesterday. It was awhile coming. I think he had a brain malfunction of some sort  - his back legs stopped working abruptly a couple of weeks ago. This is pretty significant if you're a mouse. Or any mammal really. But he wouldn't want me to dwell on his last difficult days. A couple of bundy legs certainly couldn't crack his spirit. 

Diddy was a fine example of a mouse. He was clever and eager and industrious. He would make elaborate nests out of whatever materials he had available and would hide bits of food all over the place from the tyrannous Squeeky. He was forever exploring his tiny environment and would climb all over the bars of his cage, just for fun it seemed. Sometimes he would climb all the way up to the top of the cage and just hang by his little mouse arms. Not only funny to watch, this inadvertent strength training likely enabled Diddy to drag himself around for so long once his hind limbs pooped out on him. 

He was also very people friendly and social, which is not so common for a mouse. He would immediately climb out of the cage when I opened the door and would always come and say hello. Well, he was thinking it. He would have died so darn fast in his natural environment. 

Diddy taught me many things about life - that it's a good idea to do your business mostly in one part of your environment, for instance, so it doesn't get all over everything, and that the best thing to do when startled is to either not move a muscle or run away. Finally, he taught me to hoard food when you have it, cause you never know when you're going to get more (my bad, lil buddy) and that you can stay toasty by sleeping in a big naked pile with your roommates. Thank you for the life lessons Diddy. You will be missed.