Merry Mousiemas!

Mousie enjoys the winter holiday season as much as the next penguin. Wintertime brings winter, of course, which is the season of scarves and hats and evergreen trees and penguins and twinkly lights and snow and hot chocolate and sweaters and fluffy down comforters. Mousie has to be careful in the winter, lest his whiskers and the tips of his ears and paws freeze. Penguins have no such worries, though that doesn't prevent their enjoyment of a warm scarf, warm blanket, or warm friend. May you have many warm friends this winter, this year, and every year.A Happy Happy to you from Mousie, Pietro, and the whole family of travelling friends.

When you give a mouse a kitty...

This is Pekoe. Pekoe is a goofball. Pekoe is an acrobat. Pekoe is a conversationalist. Pekoe is shameless. Pekoe is hungry. Pekoe is a fool.

Pekoe is also a cat.

Mousie likes Pekoe because Pekoe is warm and soft and fuzzy and silly. And Pekoe likes Mousie, though that might just be because Mousie has a twitchy little tail...

The Cookiemousie.

A public service message: Never turn your back on your cookie, or the Cookiemousie will eat it! This would be a special tragedy if it happened to be a cookie like this one - fresh from the oven and truly miraculous. It was puffy, chewy, gooey, crispy, salty, sweet, chocolaty, nutty, crunchy, munchy, scrunchy, and grunchy all at once. Mousie considered himself honored to be in its presence, secretly wanting everyone to look away so his inner cookiemousie could gobble it up!

Travelling Friends

You probably already know that Mousie likes to travel. It's one of the great advantages accorded to the pocket-sized in the world. But as wonderful as it is, travelling can also be stressful and lonely. Mousie often travels with Flippers and Basil because it is more fun to share the travelling experience with friends, but Mousie can get squeaky, Flippers is sometimes prickly, and Basil can be a bit of a bear, as is frankly true with everyone at some point or other. That's what makes it so awesome to meet other new travelling friends. They have colorful stories of all sorts of adventures and each one brings a slightly new perspective on the world.

Taylor the Toucan is a particularly colorful character. Well travelled, too, with a goofy sense of humour. Taylor is a little too big for most pockets so usually travels via backpack. Of most interest to Mousie and the gang, however, was Taylor's enormous nose - it's HUGE! Mousie thinks he might be related to Taylor's nose - he thinks Taylor might be a Jewcan.

On the same trip where the gang met Taylor, they were also introduced to a somewhat more mysterious character who goes by the pointedly opaque name of "The Pig." Whatever the reality of Le Pig's missions of international espionage, he was very friendly and personable. While only vaguely communicative about his travels, Herr Pig has clearly covered much of the globe and developed many interesting relationships in far-off places. Pig-san was not as silly as Mousie, but preferred Basil's reserved and quiet gentility. Sheik al-Pig clearly enjoys his globetrotting, but equally enjoyed the relaxation of not having to work so hard at being Intenational Pig of Mystery but rather, simply his piggy self. I think we'll be seeing more of him - maybe once he's become International Pig of Leisure.

Here Be Dragons!

Mousie meets the most unusual creatures in the most unlikely places, though he says that you only have to look at the world the right way to see all sorts of amazing things. Take this dragon, for example. Mousie went for a scamper on the beach and came upon this GIGANTIC dragon, lolling about in the surf. In this picture the dragon looks tiny, but that's because it is so far away. Mousie did go right up to say hello - the dragon was quite friendly and rather quiet and shy, with lots of birds relaxing on its huge back - but didn't take a picture because the dragon was so big even one nostril would have been too big for the photograph! Don't tell the dragon, but Mousie thought it was rather fat. Just look at that huge body! I wonder what this particular dragon eats?

Honey Bear

Basil finds friends everywhere! Some are more cuddly than others, but he hugs them one and all.

A Mouse for Mousie.

Mouses are everywhere! There are city mouses and field mouses, sewer mouses (eeew...) and jungle mouses, door mouses and church mouses, and sugar mouses, marzipan mouses and chocolate mouses! Mmmm, chocolate mouses! Mousie had never met a chocolate mouse until he went to Burdick's in Boston. There he came nose-to-whiskers with tiny chocolate mouses galore! (...as well as a delightfully cheeky little penguin...but that's a different story.) A little white mouse with almond ears and a purple tail wanted to follow Mousie on mini-mouse-ventures. He looked up to Mousie and tickled Mousie and wrestled with Mousie, and Mousie was very happy to have a mousy friend (he has so many friends of other fuzzy species already, but no other mouses...) But unfortunately, this story has a plaid ending: mini-mousie melted!