the infamous...mouse?

we have, temporarily at least, taken in a severely neurologically impaired mouse.

i found this mouse yesterday morning on my walk to work. it was huddled in the middle of the sidewalk. i gave it a bit of a nudge with my foot but it didn't seem to care much so i went on my way.
i was surprised to find it still there on my way back from work, still alive and blinking but not moving much. i figured its time was near so i left again.
then, on my way to east side minimart for some nyquil at 8:45 pm last night the mouse was still there. and it still appeared alive.
here is the mouse when i found it yesterday evening:






with the help and encouragement of chris (who i suspect has more of a soft-spot for helpless animals than me) and his mouse-glove, we got the mouse into a carefully constructed habitat [read: box with shredded newspaper] and brought it into the house, an act that worried kartik greatly. we saved this mouse from the fate of the owl's talons or the icy grip of the skunk!

after providing food and water we noticed that the mouse does very little but roll around a lot and walk in tight circles. it'll just start spinning and convulsing at random moments. so our best guess is that it has a severe neurological impairment.

here's a picture of the mouse as s/he is currently: not moving too much.
click on the picture to see a video of the mouse turn a cirlce. not one of the spastic roll-overs or spins, just a regular old circle.




in other news i've written an article for the blog belonging to the professor i'm working for this summer. this is like a real-deal blog, no names based on fictional whiskies there, here's the link: InfoInterventions.

it's about blogs, bombs and camera-phones.
so it's a blog entry about blogs, which i'm plugging on another blog.

i need to get out more.