It is saying that "The Mouse Year is a year of plenty, bringing of opportunity, and good prospects. It will be marked by speculation and fluctuation in the prices of commodities and the stock market; the world economy in general will boom." Ah, we are looking forward to these mouses what might bring good luck to us all......

I was growing in a time so called "Where there is a mouse passing across the street, there should be people shouting and beating it". Mouse is the evil or calamity in China then. No one liked it and believed his fortune.

In 80s of last century, I lived in a simple apartment which was on the third floor. There was no aperture from where a mouse could enter, so I never thought I could find one at my home. However, I found some food was gnawed into pieces and I heard the noise of mouse. After a couple of days' detection, I got to know that this little mouse was along the sewer in bathroom and so entered. How shrewd it was! Then I threw myself into the course of capturing it. Finally, I stopped it at a corner by a big mop and shoved it to death...

But since then, I often remembered the last look in that small mouse's eyes, which was helpless but keen to survive. I felt guilty and swore in mind never to kill a mouse again!

I now quite agree with this idea that we should leave mouse to its natural enemies such as weasel, owl, snake, eagle, fox, wildcat, and civet cat, etc... We human being should respect and listen to the Nature. Mouse has been created and then it is a part of the Nature. In another word, mouse is an emblem of shrewdness and good housekeeping along with some bumper harvest. So, we should accept it with a kind and natural mood.

Thus, I think further that we should learn how to get along with all living creature in a harmony and let each has its own space to survive.

I wish all people born in Mouse Year good fortune!

I wish each of living creatures is in its proper place!