Right now, one year ago, I woke up gagging on cigarette smoke with my heart racing with anxiety, so sure we’d lost the house.

But this year I’m waiting for my loving husband to return from dumping the pigs off at the pet store and picking up groceries.

And this year I have a better rat. One who’s so dog-like. He’s not only playful with me, but he follows me around the house and jumps up on the couch to sit next to me.

Something up there does not want me to stop breeding mice. It wants me to breed lots of them continuously. And because of this I now have a cage full of knock-ups. A few of those damn males got out and a couple ended up in with the ladies. I was within seconds of just throwing them all together, dumping the babies as they came along, but this time I have them in plastic cages only. Ain’t no way they’re getting out. Still, I’m going to be overrun with mice if I don’t dump some of the forthcoming babies. I’ll dump the boring ones. That’s what I’ve been doing as soon as their fur sprouts and I can tell what they’re going to look like. I don’t want to breed till next spring, because I don’t want to give Teddy Bear mice that are already 6 months to a year old.