My long absence is due to a business conference I went to in San Francisco. The flight back to L.A. was cancelled because of the fires in Southern California. We eventually had to rent a car to get back to L.A., and saw one of the Simi Valley fires coming out of the Grapevine on Interststate 5. But that is another story.

Yesterday I went to the Pet Store for some cat food for my poor sick cat. As of this writing she is better. But since her bloodtest showed a kidney problem, I am hoping she will pull out of it again. (See entry for April 6 2002). In any case I got sidetracked getting to the cash register to pay for the food. In the back of the store were cages of different types of rodents, amphibians and birds. The cage that intrigued me was near the bottom, close to the floor. About 20 little white mice occupied a ten gallon glass 'cage'. There was a green wheel towards the front of the glass divider. Three or four of the mice were on it at the same time.

I realized that I had been smiling widely for a couple of minutes as I contuinued to watch the show. I just couldnt' leave....it was that cute. A mouse who was the fastest 'runner' would control how fast the wheel was spinning around. The other one or two mice were also running but because the speedy one was way ahead of them it created a Funhouse kind of ride effect. The other two slower mice were spinning upside down and around again with the help of the fast paced little feet of their little running friend.

It was a real kick to watch . I stood there with an armload of catfood cans(not electing to use a basket to make things simpler for myself.) And I just kept looking at those tiny white furry mousies doing their little funhouse tricks. Sometimes a mouse would fall off or end up underneath the spinning wheel(didn't that hurt?) or go over to the corner where a pile of mice were sleeping on top of each other. Equally appealing was watching a mouse wriggle up to the top of the pile to get out. They all just kept on sleeping as if nothing was going on. I guess they liked the warmth of a mass population bed.

Two little girls came by and squealed in high pitched giggles at their mouse funhouse discovery. I had one of those strange, out of body-future-past-dejavue experiences where you feel a little off. Maybe because I felt something that reminded me of what I felt like when I was a kid. Or perhaps it was just a moment from my busy week where I actually stopped to feel 'awake' and aware of my surroundings. Or maybe it was only a dejavue sense of experiencing this before. Whatever it was, it made me feel very up and joyful and glad that I was alive at that moment. The depression from the unknown health of my cat, and the long last week of stress, and catching up for losing some work days just kinded of floated away.

Must be strange , you are thinking, that I could get that way from a bunch of little white mice. I'm not sure why, myself, but it did perk me up. There were other warm furries in that Pet Store that would have kept me there watching for a while, including two adorable puppies at the front of the store. But I had to get back home.

Before I left I saw a sign in front of a cage with a single,very stoic, and very still Toad. The sign read "By(their spelling mistake) a Terrarium and get a Toad for only $9.99!!!" Poor little toad. I wonder how he would feel if he knew he was worth only ten bucks. I paid for the catfood and laughed all the way back to my car. You don't have to take Peach to a bar or a party, or out to a dinner at an expensive restaurant or even on an all-paid giant shopping spree.......just take her to a pet store and she'll get her kicks from a bunch of white mice and a toad!................