Into the Woods with Curio: A Hiding Place
Doug Smith
“You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.” Psalm 32:7
Mice are always looking for a place to hide. It could be in the hollow of a tree several metres above the ground, (mice are good climbers) or in a birdhouse, in a woodpile, on a shelf in the toolshed, or in as unlikely a place as an empty compartment in your lawn mower, or even in your car!
They need a safe place because there is always someone hunting them. Foxes, coyotes, weasels, skunks, raccoons, owls, hawks, snakes, domestic cats and dogs, as well as squirrels and chipmunks, and even shrews all want to make a meal of a mouse. No wonder mice are always trying to hide.
I’m referring to deer mice specifically, which are the dark brown mice with big eyes and big ears that you might see by chance when at camp. They are called deer mice because their colour pattern of brown upperparts, lighter sides and white tummies resembles a white-tailed deer. And they are as agile as a deer. The white-footed mouse is almost identical to a deer mouse but usually lives further south. Two species of jumping mice are also found at camp but hibernate from the late fall right through the winter. Meadow mice are actually voles, and look different, having much smaller ears and eyes, and short tails. It is voles that make tunnels under the snow and may be active during the day, while deer mice are nocturnal, and prefer to stay above ground.
At this time of year, the deer mice start looking for a place to stay safe and warm because they lose their cover when the frost kills the vegetation. This is why you may hear the pitter-patter of very little feet in the ceilings of your house, or during your stay at camp. Somehow the mice find a way inside these buildings, being able to
squeeze through openings less than an inch wide. Once inside your house, they hide in a corner of the basement or crawl space, in the walls, or sometimes in a corner of a cupboard. And they search everywhere for food. Outside, their usual diet is seeds, nuts, berries, grasses, insects, and spiders. Inside your house, they eat whatever is available.
With food and shelter taken care of they then proceed to make a cozy nest for themselves, using whatever soft material they can find, such as tissues, rags, or the stuffing from a couch.
This nest is home to both parents and their family of one to nine pups. That’s right, the young are called pups. These youngsters only stay in the nest until they can take care of themselves, which is at about 5 to 6 weeks of age.
Once the pups leave Mom starts another nest somewhere else, (mice aren’t good housekeepers) where she’ll give birth to the next litter about three weeks later. She may have four or more litters between early spring and fall, while the young themselves start producing families not long after they have left the nest. The math shows it doesn’t take long for the local mouse population to increase dramatically. However, that long list of predators helps keep their population in check.
That’s why most deer mice never live to see all four seasons of the year, though some may live as long as 18 months. There are just too many dangers, and not always enough places to hide.
God provides a safe place for us to hide from the very real dangers we also face every day in this world.