It was the Thanksgiving Eve, when Neil Brogan came upon something really unexpected in his basement. The Richmond-based man and his wife were making the final preparations for the holiday, but little did they know it would be a Thanksgiving day they’ll always remember.
Neil walked down to his house basement when spotted a mouse standing there in the middle of the floor. When he saw the tiny creature standing still, the man soon realized something might be wrong as mouses became pretty scared of human presence. So Neil decided to investigate.
“The small mouse was sitting upright in the middle of our basement,” Neil wrote on Facebook. “I approached it slowly, but it made no attempt to move. It was vulnerable and helpless.”
Neil gently grabbed the tiny mouse into his hands and only then he figured out what happened. It turned out the little one had its left rear leg injured. Without a second thought, Neil rushed to help the hopeless creature out. He took some towels and a box and put the mouse inside.
“Despite my fear, it was heartbreaking to see it in the basement in the condition that it was in,” wife Treena Brogan said. “It was truly sad.”
As the Brogans didn’t knew exactly what to do, they called Ellen Jareckie, a friend who works as a wildlife rehabilitator. She immediately run over to help them out. Ellen fixed the little one’s leg and after a few days it was already feeling better. However, Pilgrim, how they named it, will stay with the Brogans over the winter.
“He runs, he jumps, he climbs all over things, he uses his exercise wheel,” Neil said. While his wife added: “If he’s going to be here for Christmas, we might as well make it official and put a little stocking in there for him to enjoy, so he’s taken well to it. I wasn’t looking for a pet mouse, but at least temporarily we have one.”
It is so nice to see such bighearted people helping animals in need!
