THIS WEEK'S STORY

Duke the Mouse In:
BABY PICTURES

 Duke the Mouse isn't exactly a baby any more and he's not exactly a grown up, either. He's at that age where he's right in the middle and the other day I got to thinking about him when he was a baby.
    Oh, in case you don't know, he's supposed to be in this story. He lives with me in my house and we're really quite good friends. Of course having a mouse in the house always presents a lot of challenges and if that mouse is Duke . . .  well, you'll find out.
    So the other day I got out our photo album to look at some pictures of my little mouse buddy when he was just a baby. Gosh, he was cute. And fuzzy. And into everything. All at once.
    Like right here. Here's a picture of Duke the Mouse the time he tipped over my bottle of glue. Remember that? He was certainly easy to find since he was stuck fast to my desk.
    Oh, I remember this one. Here's a picture of Duke covered from head to toe in flour. It was the time we were making bread in the kitchen and Duke wanted to see what was in the bag on the counter. Right. Flour.
    Hm. I don't remember this picture. This one almost looks like my pet mouse is covered in nacho cheese. I don't remember that at all. And this next picture seems to be of . . . well, what is that? That seems to be a professional cleaning crew. Here's another picture. There's Duke the Mouse handing a crew member my credit card! I'd better ask him about that as soon as I find my credit card statement.
    Oh, right! I remember this one. It's Duke's birthday party when he was very young. There's a picture of him standing next to the cake. I made the cake look like a building with little doors and windows made out of icing. How cute. Hey, I didn't know about this. Here's a picture of Duke inside the cake. He's eaten a hole where the door was supposed to be. You know, no wonder that cake tasted funny. 
    Oh right, first day of school, Duke's Christmas program, spring break vacation, his soccer team, our camping trip to the mountains, barbecuing with the neighbors, painting the living room with spaghetti sauce. What? Hm, here's another picture of that cleaning crew again. You know, I'm going to have to talk to that mouse.
    Oh, I remember Halloween and Duke's great costume. It was a little hard for him to go door-to-door since he's so small and our neighbors could barely see him, but what a great costume he had. He dressed up as a mouse. Wait a minute. I thought he was going as a king.
    Oh well, that's Duke for you. Come to think of it, Duke wasn't that much different than he is now. He's always up to something and I'm usually the last to find out about it. But he's a pretty good pet to have around the house.
   And that's the way it is with Duke.