I have to say that, though many of the wildlife here in the UK can be found in the US, I have not personally experienced many of them until I lived here.  Today presented another new experience.  Had I reached the poor animal first, I probably would have squealed and jumped, crying out against the rodent population.  As it was, my cool, level-headed husband found it first.[ad#ad-1]

He was on his way out to the car when he spotted a small, furry animal on the ground.  Needless to say, it was dead.  But, instead of jumping out of the way, he examined it and found that it looked like a long-nosed mouse.  He suspected it was something other than a mouse, so he went back in and pulled out one of our nature guides.  Sure enough, it was a shrew. 

My animal-loving kids had to go see.  They thought it was so adorable.  I won’t say what I thought.  I don’t know much about shrews, but I know they aren’t rodents.  Yet, they breed like rodents.  One thing is for sure.  Since shrews usually burrow underground, I cannot blame the scratching in the loft on them.