Country living and little creatures.

A few years ago when we still had two of our wonderful little family members (our old cats) we would often wake up to headless mice on our lawn and, unfourtunalty sometimes tiny little bank voles. The cats never ate or destroyed the voles, they worried them to death. I don’t no if you’ve ever seen a bank vole, they are the most delightful little creatures. A long pointed nose, little ears and tiny feet almost like little hands.
When I looked out of our window one morning, there on the lawn was a little vole, dead. I had my coffeee did a few jobs around the house and then I  decided I would go out into the garden and pick it up and put it in our dustbin, I wouldn’t  wait for my husband to come in from work. Collecting any dead creatures from our garden was usually his job.
When I picked this little fellow up I held him gently in my hands. His little head was hanging on one side. As I started walking towards our dustbin I began talking to it. I told it how sorry I was that our cat had killed it. I cupped my hands gently  around it as I kept talking and I was conscious of the fact my hands were getting hot. When I reached the dustbin still talking quietly to this little dead creature, I opened the dustbin and I very gently placed it on the top of a box. I put the lid back on and walked away.
About an hour after my husband came home at tea time he asked me if I’d put anything in the dustbin that day? I told him I had, a lovely little dead vole.
“Well it’s not dead now. When I lifted the lid to put some rubbish in a few minutes ago there was a little vole sitting on top of all the rubbish, looking at me as if to say. “ What am I doing here? “ So I’ve put him back into the garden under some bushes. I can assure you he’s  very much alive now Isabella.“
“He can’t be, he was dead!”
” Well he’s not now”.
As you can imagine my husband was convinced I was wrong in my prognosis and I was just as convinced I was right.
I guess we will never no, but that little fellow lived to fight another day and I still smile to myself when I remember what happened that day.