The Mouse Trap

Someone sent this to one of my Yahoogroups. I thought it was cute and maybe a little profound....

There's a mousetrap in the house

A Mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see
the farmer and his wife opening a package. "What food
might this contain?" He was devastated to discover it
was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the
mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in
the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and
said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern
to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be
bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a
mousetrap in the house." The pig sympathized but said,
"I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse, But there is nothing I
can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in
my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow. She said, "Wow, Mr.
Mouse. I'm sorry for you. But it's no skin off my
nose." So the mouse returned to the house, head down
and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house
like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The
farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the
darkness she did not see that it was a venomous snake
whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the
farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital,
and she returned home with a fever.

Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh
chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the
farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his
wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors
came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them,
the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well. She died. So many
people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow
slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a
problem and think that it doesn't concern you,
remember that when one of us is threatened, we are all
at risk. We are all involved in this journey called
life. We must keep an eye out for one another and be
willing to make that extra effort to encourage one
another.