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.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/08/BAmousie08.DTL
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.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/08/BAmousie08.DTL
Talk about taking that 5.00 buck Euro tour.
