Status: 12.01.2024, 15:15 PM
By: Lara-Sabrina Kiehl
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In the morning, Rodney Holbrook discovers a pleasant surprise at his workbench: everything is neatly tidy. An animal helper regularly lends him a hand.
Rodney Holbrook, a 75-year-old wildlife photographer from Builth Wells in the UK, is astonished to discover that the clutter in his shed mysteriously disappears overnight. When he unravels the mystery, he uncovers a fascinating phenomenon – a mouse that keeps the shed tidy every night. In the style of Ratatouille.
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Mouse reliably cleans up everything
For the past two months, Holbrook has watched the little mouse, recorded by a night-vision camera on his workbench, put clothespins, corks, nuts and screws into a box. The ritual he discovered seems to take place almost every night. "It's really incredible that she's putting it all back in the box, I think she's enjoying it," Holbrook told the BBC.
A mouse makes for a neat workbench in a shed in the UK. (Symbolic image) © Avalon.red/Imago
Even when Holbrook puts the mouse to the test by placing various items, she doesn't let herself be dissuaded from her cleanup mission. Carrying cable ties to the pot is just one of her impressive talents. Holbrook reports that in the past he had already been allowed to make the acquaintance of a mouse with a sense of orderliness. Back in 2019, he experienced a similar phenomenon in Bristol when another mouse kept his dandruff in order.
Shed owner can sit back and relax
The retired postal worker believes that the mouse uses the collected items to hide nuts, and so far, its unconventional arrangement has apparently worked well. Instead of continuing to worry about the cleanup, Holbrook just leaves things outside the box and finds them back in their place the next morning.
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The pensioner is fascinated by the persistence and efficiency of the mouse. "I don't bother tidying up anymore, I just leave things lying around and they're back in their place in the morning. I think the mouse would even wipe my wife away if I left her in there."
TikTok users love the little "order mouse"
But it's not just Holbrook who has to smile about the rodent, but also quite a few Internet users. There is a video on TikTok that was posted by @thatgoodnewsgirl. The clip has amassed over 7.7 million clicks and 1.4 million likes so far. More than 7,800 comments accumulate under the recording. Here is a small selection of what the users write.
- "Heinzelmäuschen 🥰 "
- "Master Eder and his Pumuckl or something."
- "The mouse says, 'No one is helping me in this house.'"
- "Stop, that's adorable & I need an order mouse 🐭, too."
- "Can you imagine being so messy that the resident mice say, 'Man, you need my help.'😩"
- "Damn, this mouse cleans better than my 20-year-old son🤣🤣."
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model to optimize at her own discretion. All information has been carefully verified. Learn more about our AI principles here.