A new and friendly little creature has joined the inhabitants of the Shiel Student Life Center: a mouse.

Spanish teacher Kathy Darnell said, “I’ve seen evidence of him, heard him, but not seen him.” While there have only been sightings of one mouse, Darnell said, “My common sense tells me that, where there’s one, there will be more.”

Although the presence of the mouse has not disturbed Darnell’s teaching, she said that it did disrupt an after school meeting. “We heard him in the recycling bin making some noise, and it kind of made us stop for a minute,” Darnell said.

Darnell said that, if given the choice to name the mouse, she would christen it “Ratoncita” meaning “little mouse.” However, she compared the mouse to Despereaux, the main character of Kate DiCamillo’s novel The Tale of Despereaux, in which a brave mouse attempts to save a human princess from the rats. “I would think he’d be more like Despereaux, because he is very brave, especially to come out (near other people). But, he does like to remain hidden, stealthy,” Darnell said.

She advised all students and teachers to take precautionary measures against the creature. “We need to contemplate how to encourage the mouse not to be in the SLC, because it’s not necessarily a clean or healthy thing for him to be chewing on things and leaving his droppings behind,” Darnell said.

The Cathedral family seems to continuously expand: first, a ghost in Loretto Hall, and now, a mouse in the SLC. There’s been no word on whether the mouse will offer to cook gourmet meals in the cafeteria.