Broadcast: November 16, 2003
Duke's Story

Duke the Mouse in:
SKETCHING BARE TREES

     I thought Duke was asleep. I saw him late yesterday afternoon sitting in the window. I had made a chair for him using a wooden spool from some sewing thread for the seat and then glued the business part of an wooden ice cream spoon for the back rest. Yeah, it was a comfortable chair so I just figured Duke had gone to sleep.
     I was going to sneak up on him and meow right in his ear. That sure makes him jump.
     Instead, I looked over his shoulder and saw my pet mouse sketching away. He was drawing a picture of some bare winter trees across the street.
     He really has a nice paw when it comes to drawing. He was using a piece of broken pencil lead that I had from my pencil. Using a real pencil would be much too large for my pet mouse. For his sketch pad, I just cut up some regular sized paper into smaller sheets for him and glued them at the top. That works nicely for a mouse-sized sketch pad.
     So there was Duke, drawing like a professional and so quiet, too.
     I didn’t say anything as I stood over him and I thought he didn’t even know I was there until he stopped and asked me what I thought of his drawing.
     I told him.
     I said I thought it was as good a drawing as I could ever do and maybe even better. I told him that I was very impressed with this talent and skill and I said that he never ceases to amaze me. That’s what I told my pet mouse.
     I think maybe I embarrassed him a little. That mouse! When he was finished, he gave me the drawing. It’s not much bigger than my thumbnail, but I’ll keep it forever and hang it on my wall. Thanks, Duke, for the sketch of the bare winter trees.
     And that’s the way it is with Duke.