The article in the NMC News, about myself, from the early seventies, sparked quite a few memories.

After acquiring my first Dutch mice in 1969, I made rapid progress in breeding some decent show mice, these did a lot of winning.  In those days it was possible to make up a champion mouse.  For those more recent members, in order to get a champion mouse you needed to win 5 firsts at 3 different shows under 3 different judges. There needed to be 7 entries from 3 different exhibitors.  As the Fancy has grown smaller, with less shows and exhibitors, the award of champion has been discontinued.  I managed to gain 10 champions in the early 1970’s.  At that time Harrods were looking for Dutch mice, for a client in Switzerland.  Eric Jukes recommended me.  Harrods phoned me and the mice were sent.

The magazine Fur & Feather was popular at the time and covered most types of small animals and fancy pigeons. The Editor contacted me and asked me to write some articles about keeping and showing mice.  I was happy to do this, there was no payment, unlike in more recent times.  I have been paid up to £200 for a one-thousand-word article, on another subject, with a different magazine.

The local branch of Lions International approached me to ‘borrow’ a dozen mice. These were to be used at a mouse racing evening, for charity.  Each mouse was auctioned to a syndicate and the races were bet on.  The evening raised several hundred pounds and was featured in our local paper. As a result  of this publicity Radio Bristol approached me and I did an interview with them, about keeping fancy mice.

I can remember occasionally sending mice to two shows, on the same day. British Rail were happy to take small livestock, at that time, so I could send to shows in any part of the country.  I think one show was at the Borders mouse club in Carlisle or Airedale in Yorkshire and the other was probably in Portsmouth, Greenwich or Dagenham.

After giving up my mice in the mid 1970’s it has been good to keep them again, after a gap of 45 years.