The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1694 by Angharad Copyright © 2012 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

At last it was Friday, only one more day to get through until the weekend. Gareth had gone and then returned a couple of times. I said nothing to either of them except positive things, but mostly I kept it to small talk. Stella supervised Jacquie while I was at work and she seemed to be coming on quite well as a nanny, if not a housekeeper. I had in mind to try and teach her some more basic skills but also to encourage her reading. I’d found a couple of things on the internet regarding adult literacy and I’d tried to involve Julie, whose reading age was quite good. She’d never make Brain of Britain but I reckon she’d probably be able to run her own business one day.

I took the girls to school and suddenly remembered we had a bank holiday on Monday, so they’d be home an extra day, though I thought the university was working normally. I’d have to check. Pippa informed me rather snottily that we had the day off because none of the students would turn up anyway. I tried to point out that I worked seven days a week on the survey and she just ignored me.

I wondered about the wedding next weekend and how formal it would be and therefore what I should wear. The other question was how warm or dry it would be. Like everything else in this country at the moment, the weather is decidedly upside down. We were now in May and it had been warmer and drier in March. Oh well, I’ll just have to keep wearing a vest won’t I?

I went down to my office to prepare for my tutorials. I hated the first one, as we neither knew each other and so there were lots of pregnant pauses while you sound the other out. This year because of the size of my classes, we, the teachers that is, decided to offer group sessions. I have ten students today and ten more on Tuesday. Not entirely satisfactory, but I could say that I’m a victim of my own success.

My office is too small to sit eleven people so we’re using one of the larger rooms just up the corridor from me. Currently, it’s a utility room, used for meetings and all sorts of things, though I suspect I’m going to be the prime user, so I might make a bid for it as my office. I’m running the largest course in our department, so have some leverage, and that room is as close to the labs as mine, so I get to see the dormice regularly—I still have a soft spot for Spike.

Did I ever say how I got her? I’d just started my own survey sites for dormice and was doing the initial survey when I saw a weasel dash out from the undergrowth carrying something. It was, as it turned out to be, Spike’s mother. The little mustelid had slaughtered all but one of the babies who’d been bitten on the head but was still just alive—the rest were all dead and I felt so angry. Nature was very red in tooth and claw that day.

I picked up the injured youngster and stuck a bit of tape across her injured head and popped her in my pocket, expecting her to be dead by the time I returned to the university.

We’d acquired some captive bred animals and one of them had babies, so I managed to persuade her to adopt the extra little one, which she did—an unusual event, I believe. I did a paper on it with photos, it was published in something by the mammal society. Of course, she was left with the ‘crest’ from her injuries and my nickname of Spike seemed to stick.

I’ve had her ever since and although at times she is far from grateful to me for saving her bacon, on other occasions we seem to have some sort of relationship—if that’s not just wishful thinking on my part. I’ve handled her so often she’s reasonably comfortable in my paws, although as the Youtube clip showed, she could be spooked by flash photography.

I took my stuff to the tutorial room and set up my laptop after sticking a notice on the door in case none of them knew where to come. Usually they arrive in drips and drabs when you’re doing anything with a group of students, today they were all there in five minutes so we started pretty well on time, which I thanked them for in the hope it would encourage more punctuality.

I’d taken in a jug of water and some plastic drinking cups, so they could have a drink and most of them did. Having a cup of palatable fluid in your hand seems to relax us in potentially tense situations; these days kids drink loads of water, so it was well received.

You don’t want to hear what went on in the tutorial, but there were a few groans about only getting me for one of the field groups. I did try to point out everyone else felt the same, but with over a hundred students, it was going to be difficult.

Another one moaned that she’d come to work with dormice. I told her if she was that interested, she needed to do well in all her field assignments and she could end up being invited to work with the dormouse group. She huffed a bit at that, but accepted some of it was in her own gift.

As I knew we’d be dealing more with gripes than course work, I arranged for Neal to pop Spike in a little cage and bring her in to my tutorial. It was ten minutes from the end when he knocked the door and they were all fascinated by this little rufus coloured lump of fluff which sat nibbling a brazil nut, which she took from me and then sat in the middle of the cage, seemingly unaffected by the group of ahhing women sat watching her.

Did I not mention my course was female dominated, about six to one, and this group were all females. Interestingly, once Spike arrived the whingeing stopped, as I thought it would. Trish might be cleverer than I, but I have the edge in cunning—as I’m a zoologist, would that make it animal cunning?

The girl who moaned about wanting to study dormice waited until everyone else had gone when she asked if she could hold Spike. I closed the door and took my little baby out of her cage and showed the girl, Carly Sinclair, how to hold her. The look on her face when she finally held the famous Spike. I had to take a picture of her holding the dormouse with her camera-phone. What I have to do to keep students happy—they’re worse than my kids—although they’ve all handled Spike—except Catherine, so it’s no big deal anymore.

Carly went off with a smile from ear to ear. As I closed up the room, taking my laptop and Spike out with me, I thought it was nice to make someone’s day so easily—were it always so.