Cornelius and the Mouse

     We are snake-sitting for the summer!  Natalee offered to take care of Cornelius, an albino corn snake that belongs to Mr. Whiting, a science teacher at Monroe.  He is a very friendly snake, but it didn't take long for Natalee to decide that she doesn't want to be a snake owner after all.  About a week after getting Cornelius, it was time to go pick up a mouse from Mr. Whiting for him to eat.  Natalee was having a hard time choosing because she thought all the little mice were adorable.  Mr. Whiting finally grabbed a black one for her to take.  We took the mouse home and she put Cornelius in and the mouse together in a plastic bin.  She was feeling horrible about it, but Cornelius didn't eat it.  It turned out Cornelius was about to shed and we ended up keeping that mouse for almost two weeks!  The worse part: Nathan adored it.  I kept catching him playing with it.  He would take it out of the plastic bin and carry it around and put it on his shoulder and put it up to his cheek and make it "kiss" him.  Once I caught him rolling it between his hands like he was making a play dough snake and had to quickly stop him.  I was wondering if the mouse was starting to look forward to the snake. :)  We had brought in a huge black plastic horse feeder to put it in with Cornelius.  Once when Cornelius didn't eat it again, it was still in the feeder and Nate picked it up and was holding it.  I told him to put it away and leave it in there so he did.  Seconds later I turned around and he had climbed in with the mouse and was talking to it.  Silly boy!
     Well, Cornelius did eventually eat the mouse.  And luckily, Nathan wasn't devastated about it one bit.  He didn't seem to even notice that the mouse was gone.  But it was still hard on Natalee.  I predict that she will stop asking for a snake and I'm guessing this is her last time snake sitting too.