IS THIS YOUR LOST MOUSE?
CALGARY AUTHOR WILL FERGUSON’S HOLIDAY WISH: TO REUNITE A CHILD WITH STUFFED ANIMAL
My Christmas wish this year? To reunite a stuffed animal with its child. A long shot, to be sure, but this is the season for miracles after all.
The tale of the missing mouse starts last winter, back in the grey depths of January at the indoor soccer centre on Bearspaw Dam Road.
My son had lost his water bottle again (he has single-handedly been keeping the water bottle industry afloat) and I was rummaging through the lost-and-found bin, muttering dark invective, when I came upon it: a stuffed animal wedged in among the boots and smelly soccer jerseys.
Dropped by someone’s younger sibling, no doubt, it was a little mouse in a threadbare apron, and clearly well-loved by the faded nature of the fabric.
As a parent, I immediately recognized that this was somebody’s Best Friend.
My older son had a sheep (named, in the imaginative manner of three-year-olds, “Sheep”) whom he dragged everywhere and nearly lost on several heart-stopping occasions.
He would have been devastated if Sheep had ever gone missing.
My son is now in high school and Sheep is with us still, as is our second son’s lamb, Polly. And I knew that somewhere out there was a small child who would be missing this lost mouse very much. So I put it at the very top of the pile, confident that the mouse would soon be reunited with its owner.
The indoor soccer season continued, with the usual number of lost water bottles and misplaced shin guards, and over the course of the next few months I would often find myself back at the lost-and-found. The mouse was always there.
At the end of the season I rescued it, knowing full well what happens to lost items over the summer: they are dumped into large garbage bags, set aside, and then eventually end up as land fill.
I sent a photo of the mouse to the Calgary Minor Soccer Association, asked them to forward it to their various team managers, but no one could identify the mouse in question and she sat, forlorn, on my bookshelf all summer.
In September, I brought the mouse back to Bearspaw Dam Road, perched it atop the lost-and-found bin, said goodbye, and left.
Our son plays at the Subway Soccer Centre now, so it was several months before I was able to go back. The mouse was still there, unclaimed, and looking more forlorn than ever.
So. I now turn to the kindness of Calgary Herald readers for help. Christmas is fast approaching and it would be a wonderful gift to a small child to be reunited with their little lost mouse. Please show the accompanying photo to anyone you know who might have a small child, who might have been at the Calgary West Soccer Centre on Bearspaw Dam Road last winter, or know of one who is missing their Best Friend.
Any tips or leads can be e-mailed to the Lost Mouse Campaign Headquarters at submit@calgaryherald.com.
Thank you. And here’s hoping we can make someone’s Christmas memorable!