The small mice all go to school to learn all about predators...those nasty neighbourhood pussy cats and the fast and dangerous Sparrowhawks which are sometimes to be seen swooping over the garden. It's rare that a cat comes into Medlar House garden, for there is a small but efficient cat chasing dog to be found patrolling it, who keeps watch over the many different birds that come to feed there.
Her name is Delphi and she is a Wire Haired Fox Terrier who is very good at sitting very, very still in the sunshine, so that you sometimes forget she is there. Delphi likes the birds but the Medlar House mice have to be certain that Delphi has had her dinner before they venture near her, or she has a tendency to pounce on them. Luckily the mice are too fast...but still, she gives them a fright.
So the mice go to school to learn to read and to write, to learn all about Owls - Oh My! that gives the younger mice nightmares, and to learn to recognise the things that a little pastel coloured mouse might find good to eat.
This is Lettuce. She is a good scholar and today she has donned her new bonnet and her new dress to go to school. In her new fashionable yellow satchel, which is a match for her outfit, she had books about how to gather and store hazelnuts and what to make out of Medlar fruits...oh and how to recognise the silhouette of a bird of prey flying overhead. That is very important.
Better not dally - it can be dangerous being a green mouse in a dull Winter garden.
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