Sparky had a rough night.

That little brown thing is Sparky’s favorite toy.  It’s supposed to be a mouse or vole.  Possibly because it chirps when bumped or because the whole thing fits in his mouth, Sparky has played with it for most of the two weeks it’s been here.

This could be me, trying to figure out if it’s a cat toy or a turd.

A few days ago, we came in from our night walk, and Sparky had that in his mouth.  I thought he had salvaged a frozen turd, and was bringing it in for further study.  That’s something he does.  We had a heated debate about bringing frozen turds into the house when I realized it was his pet mouse.

Yesterday afternoon, when Sparky was playing with it, the toy got stuck on continuous chirp mode.  It was upsetting enough that Sparky gave his distressed excitement yelp.  He only makes that sound when he is in over his head, and that rarely happens.

Toys like this are disposable, but maybe it could be repaired.  I cut it open, and found the inside was about as wet as I expect a real mouse would be.  I pulled the mechanism out, took it apart, cleaned it, used Scotch tape to seal it, put it back in and sewed it up.  That worked for a while.

Being a dog is a 24/7 operation.  While I’m sleeping, Sparky is still on duty.  He goes to bed in his night crate, but gets up several times to check on stuff.  If I’m not sleeping, I can hear his clickety nails on the hardwood floor.  I don’t know what he’s doing.  Since there are no signs of peeing, pooping or chewing, it’s none of my business.

When I woke up this morning, the mouse was faintly chirping in the hallway.  It eventually went dead.  I vaguely recall hearing it in the middle of the night, but it wasn’t disruptive enough to get me out of bed.  Now, the batteries are dead.

Sparky is blaming me for his friend’s death.  I can’t tell if Sparky is saying, “You take everything I love” or “You didn’t even try putting in new batteries”, but his accusation wounds me.

I considered deflecting his fury towards Skunk or Mr. Moose.  He had spurned his two friends, so they have plenty of motive and we know that Skunk can be spiteful.  I owed Sparky the truth, but didn’t want to be too hard on him.  We watched that scene from Of Mice and Men, where Lenny accidentally kills the puppy he loved.  

Sparky knew there had to be mice in all that straw, so he wanted to see the rest of the movie.  He wasn’t getting it.  When I explained that he was John Malkovich, not the puppy, he got the point.

Now, Sparky is remorseful for killing or breaking his mouse.  

I hate to seem him like this, so I will stop by Tractor Supply to get him another mouse.

To distracted him from his grief, I suggested that Billy Bob Thornton would make a good Lenny in a remake. Sparky really liked the movie Sling Blade because Thornton’s character got to sleep in a shed. 

Sparky wants to think about that for a while.