Initially published in the Alliston Herald on March 5, 2009
There was trouble in Mouseland. There was a shortage of peanuts. There were no peanuts to pay for a hole where the Tottenham mice could put their doo doo. There were no peanuts to pay for more fire mice. There were no peanuts to fix hundreds of mouse paths. The mouse paths in Mouseland looked like swiss cheese.
Even the mouse pool leaked. There were no peanuts to fix it.
Mouseland used to have peanuts. That was when the mouse called "Larry" was head mouse. Larry was a tiny, secretive mouse who loved to spend peanuts. It was his most favourite thing to do.
Larry the Mouse paid millions of peanuts for the water hose that brought the Japanese mouse company fresh water to build things. Then he borrowed millions more. There was monster peanut debt.
Larry even had Mouseland buy property with the bald mouse called "Newman". Newman the Mouse kept the good parts that made peanuts. Mouseland got the empty parking lot. Now Newman's tenant mice use the parking lot for free. It wasn't such a good deal for Mouseland.
When Larry the Mouse was no longer head mouse he liked to volunteer. He became President at the Gibson Castle and helped spend the Castle's peanuts. Larry still likes to spend peanuts.
The deputy mouse did not worry too much about the peanut debt. He mostly worried about becoming head mouse again. He even coloured his fur yellow to make it seem that he was not too old to be the head mouse.
The Mouse House mouse from the Briars had some ideas about how to fix the peanut problem. But whenever he talked in the Mouse House the other mice would cover their mouse ears and say, "La la la la la la la." They did not want to listen to him.
The legal mouse from Alliston liked to use big words when he talked about the peanut shortage. He would say, "The paucity of the arachis hypogaea is iniquitous." The other Mouse House mice didn't know what he said. They hardly ever knew. They just wished he would speak Mouse.
The girl mouse from Alliston also seemed worried about the peanut shortage. She even stopped giggling when she talked in the Mouse House.
The large mouse from Beeton loved to spend Mouseland peanuts to buy shiny toys and objects. He was like a pack rat. As soon as he got one shiny toy he scurried around to spend more peanuts on another. When he got the Beeton library he wanted the Beeton field. When he got the Beeton field he wanted the Beeton field house. When he got the Beeton field house he wanted a new Beeton arena. He was a happy Beeton mouse.
The youngest Mouse House mouse from Tottenham liked to talk about saving peanuts. He would say, "We need to be responsible with our peanuts" and "We need to look out for the taxpayers of Mouseland."
It made him smile when he said these words. He liked it when he sounded responsible. But he seemed confused. After he said these things he would vote to spend peanuts on whatever shiny objects the Beeton mouse wanted.
The oldest mouse from Tottenham was very generous. He didn't seem to worry much about the peanut shortage. He just wanted to give peanuts to old mice.
Some mice thought that Mouseland should sell the water hose to fix the problem. The water hose was worth a lot of peanuts to the cats and rats who liked to build mice nests for thousands of mice. That would lower the monster peanut debt. But the head mouse had a different idea. He wanted to give away the water hose to the land called "Queen's Park". The Queen's Park mice must have put a spell on the head mouse.
To be continued...
