Of Mice and Perseverance

Humorist Dave Barry once wrote that if we were ever serious about getting to Mars, we should just spread a rumor that there's food up there. The racoons would figure out a way to get to it. Animals are persistent like that when it's something they really want. Which leads us to today's guest blog by none other than my husband, Dave:

Well, "The Queen" has been persevering with me for almost 18 years now. She needs to just wait until I am old, then she will have something to write about on the subject of perseverance!

Anyway, she asked me to write this story on perseverance. Last week when the weather warmed up, I headed up to North Carolina to do some hiking. I started out at Natahalia National Forest and left my car at the trail head there. It is common for hikers to do that...to leave their cars at the trail head for several days at a time. Sometimes vandals and thieves know this and take advantage of the situation. That is what happened to me last week.

I stopped off and picked up a box of graham crackers somewhere along the way. I ate one of the three packages, and left the other two sealed in plastic. They stayed in my car with the windows rolled up and the doors locked for almost 4 days. When I returned from my hike, I pulled one of the packets out of the box to eat it, and noticed the corner had been eaten off--obviously by mice.

So, this is how it goes: when a car pulls up to the parking area, the mice living there know that there is a good chance that it will be there for several days. They also know there is a good chance there is food inside somewhere. Since they have several days to find a way to get in, get at the food, and then get out, they begin looking. They may even look for days before they find a way in, but eventually they do (as my graham crackers can attest). The perseverance of searching every nook and cranny on the car finally pays off and the reward for the mice is a feast!