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The Misadventures of Mousie Mouse that soared over East Bay sought Girl's beloved toy last seen dangling from 2 balloons
Time is running out for Mousie the mouse who, tied to two birthday balloons, was last seen soaring helplessly over the Berkeley hills toward points east. Mousie has been gone for a week now. Mousie's owner, an 11-year-old girl who tied him to the balloons in the first place, is as distraught as an 11-year-old girl can be. "It's a tragedy,'' said Caroline Nielsen. "I feel terrible. It should never have happened. Mousie is a member of the family.'' Mousie, it should be pointed out, is not a live mouse but a 3-inch-tall stuffed mouse. That does not make Mousie any less real to Caroline, who has treasured Mousie since the day nine years ago when her dad brought the toy home from a business trip. Mousie has lived on a shelf above Caroline's bed ever since, in a suite of dollhouse beds, chairs, sofas and no fewer than four hand-knit mouse bed quilts that her mother, Mary Nielsen, crafted over the years for Mousie. The tale began to turn gray last week. During a birthday party for her kid sister on Sept. 1, Caroline tied a pair of helium balloons to Mousie and began pushing her around the house, partly to give her rodent friend an aerial view of his lodgings and partly to find out how many balloons it takes to float a mouse. But someone left her bedroom window open and, as Caroline watched in horror, a sudden gust carried the floating Mousie out the window, past the maple tree in the backyard, over the rooftop and gone. Caroline and her mother began running down the street, trailing the floating mouse, until it drifted past the Claremont Hotel and over the East Bay hills. "I don't think he wanted to see the world,'' Caroline said. "He wasn't that kind of mouse. But he's seeing it now, whether he wanted to or not.'' Mother and daughter kept their heads. They plastered the neighborhood with flyers ("Please check your yards and trees!''). They posted a missing mouse notice online. They offered a $100 reward. They placed a classified ad in The Chronicle, perhaps the most woeful classified ad in the 140-year history of this newspaper. "Toy Mouse lost 9/1, 3" gray cloth, tied to red/blue helium balloons, Berkeley eastward … ." So far, nothing. A few crank calls, from people who fail to understand the gravity of the situation, but no mouse. Caroline checked the weather report for that day and learned that the wind was blowing eastward, at 15 mph. She checked with the balloon store and learned that the balloons were premium grade and can last a week or more. She figures the mouse could still be flying, somewhere over Ohio by now. The family is coping, mother and daughter agreed. "The last few days, we've been edging toward recovery,'' said Mary Nielsen. "Mousie brought so much joy to our lives. He's not replaceable.'' But Mary did call the Cincinnati hotel where her husband found the toy mouse on his pillow nine years ago, a holiday gift to hotel guests from management. The manager told Mary she remembered the mouse giveaway but that it was long ago and that she had no more mice on hand, no record of the manufacturer and no idea how to get another mouse. Mother and daughter were holed up in Caroline's bedroom, staring at a basket full of 15 other stuffed animals, none of which is Mousie. Caroline did promote a stuffed bunny onto Mousie's shelf of honor, but if Mousie manages to find his way home to Berkeley, the bunny is going back to its basket on the floor. "This whole thing is a tragedy,'' Caroline said. "I know it's not a real mouse. I know there are bigger tragedies, like the hurricane. But it's a tragedy to me.''  + = | |
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