Christmas arrived with a gift for Nathan.
Drew had purchased him a cage constructed of blue plastic and stainless steel bars.
For exercise, he had a long tunnel molded from red, yellow and orange plastic, that he paced relentlessly, especially when Drew left him alone.
His brother had been very complete in furnishing the habitat, which even offered a wheel that Nathan could use for running mindless laps, and different plastic ramps led to different levels of his habitat, including a little green plastic home.
A water tube and a dish for food pellets rounded out the ambience.
Nathan worried when Drew began to speak to him less frequently. As far as his brother was concerned, Nathan as a little pet was the new normal.
With a couple of days left in 2023, which Nathan could monitor by staring at a calendar on the closest wall, Drew surprised him.
His enormous sibling opened the roof of the cage and introduced another mouse.
In most respects, Nathan looked quite similar to the other mouse. They both had white fur, pink noses, dark beady eyes, tiny pink paws and oversized ears.
But the newcomer had a definite size advantage and unlike Nathan, wasn’t in the least timid.
“Figured you might like a boyfriend,” Drew said with a snicker to punctuate the statement.
“What?!” Nathan squeaked, which he at once regretted when it drew the instant attention of the other mouse.
As Drew watched with increasing amusement, he saw the larger mouse approach and stubbornly mount his transformed sibling despite a few feeble squeaks of protest from Nathan.
“Get him off me!” Nathan squeaked. “Drew! Help!”
All he got for his protests was more laughter from Drew.
“Looks like he like you,” Drew observed as the bigger mouse humped the smaller one with persistent enthusiasm.