The tale of the mouse

..with no tail!
A few days ago a long black felt like 'thing' appeared in the bathroom.Geoff put it on the windowsill where I found it.I asked both Em and Holly if they knew what it was,nope, no ideas there either.So I asked Geoff and he said it was the cotton/thread stuff which made up the smile on Holly's Mickey Mouse toy.(It's been hanging loose from side of his mouth for a while!)So I put it 'safe' on the drawers next to my bed.Sometime this morning before I was properly awake I vaguely heard a loud crying.Then it stopped,so I went back to sleep (as you do)About an hour later when Geoff brought me up a drink he asked where that 'black stuff' was from the bathroom.Turns out that this morning Holly discoverd that Mickey is now tail-less - hence the loud crying upon discovery of this fact.Now,Mickey is her favourite toy,has been since she was about 18 months old.We bought him for her when she took a shine to Em's one, so she could have her own.Since then she has remained totally loyal to him,and not switched favourite toy on a yearly basis (as Em used to do!)Whilst she doesn't take him literally everywhere,he is always by her side at night and downstairs with her first thing in the morning,she used to gently flap his ears on her cheeks when she was tired and she always reaches out for him when she is upset.And now he is tail-less.On closer inspection(don't ask),it appears it has simply worn away (probably from the frequent practice of being swung or carried around by said tail) that has caused the 'erosion'.So tomorrow I have the job of re-joing the felty tail to the felty stump which is hidden under his thinning red shorts.No doubt he will be lovingly cared for afterwards for several minutes before being swung round by the tail again.....