tales from the road (non fiction)

 When I was a couple days out of Vienna I found a baby mouse in the middle of the road. This isn't the first time this has happened to me. Oftentimes asphalt will retain heat and baby mice will be drawn to it trying to keep warm.

This thing was barely weened And was going to get run over. It didn't run when I touched it. It just squeaked. It also was shaking and I couldn't tell if it was cold or or a neurological thing. It didn't seem well.

 I scooped it up, loosely putting it in a nest of toilet paper and put it in my pocket. A couple hours later in the next town I stopped and offered it some water and a wet cookie. 

It refused to eat and was just trying to keep warm so I put it back in my pocket and bought some milk and went to a drug store and got a syringe so I could try and nurse it.

I filled the syringe with milke and warmed it in hot water from my camp stove. But when I got the mouse back out to nurse, it had died. So I drank the milk. 

I buried little homie in the park.