Deborah Michelle’s ankle tattoo, based on a Suzy Spafford design
Ms. Michelle’s mouse collection
Deborah’s mother embroidered this picture of a mouse taking time to smell a flower in the 1970’s
Mice on cheese salt and pepper shakers
Vintage ceramic parmesan cheese shaker
“You Help Keep Me Balanced,” a figurine from Dean Griff’s “Charming Tails” series.
Mouse-shaped ring holder
A framed picture of a mouse with cheese temptation
MICE
Deborah Michelle
Disability Support Services
While there is a word to describe someone who loves mice, there is not a word for people who collect them. Which is odd, because mice figures have been a source of pleasure for at least 1,900 years. Deborah Michelle is both a musaphile and a collector. Her delight in mice dates from childhood. “I was a dancer growing up,” she explains. “My first role in my first Nutcracker was as a Mouse (in the first scene when Clara is dreaming). Ever since then, my father has called me Mouse.”
Referencing the ballet, Ms. Michelle’s collection of around 20-mouse items includes a tiny mouse snuggled into a pink ballet slipper, part of artist Dean Griff’s “Charming Tails” series; and a regal-looking mouse standing on a big cheese, pink ears flaring above a fur cloak. This is the Mouse King himself, the Nutcracker’s arch villain.
A picture of a mouse sniffing a flower was hand-stitched by Deborah’s mother in the 1970’s, and a china mouse with a beatific smile, who’s hugging a piece of cheese to his belly, is a parmesan shaker. (Of course!) Ms. Michelle’s license plates read “1MOWSE,” while her ankle sports a tattoo of a small mouse hugging a big heart, which was drawn from a design by San Diego illustrator Suzy Spafford.
Why the fascination with mice? “The connection with my father. He is the only one who calls me Mouse.”
Deborah’s collection is a “charming tail,” but there is more. Her favorite mouse opens the door to another level of meaning: “There’s a small stuffed brown mouse that I call the Brownie Mouse. My sister gave it to me. I kept it with me when I travelled and the couple of times I was in the hospital.”
“Due to arthritis, I had to stop dancing at 15 (after 12 years),” Deborah explains. “It was my identity. It broke my heart to stop. My soul is a dancer and I will always see myself as such. I wasn’t a prima ballerina, rather part of the corps, but that didn’t matter, I was just happy to dance. I’ve tried to dance again many times over the years, but my knees don’t allow for it.”
These days Deborah swims, which allows her to dance without pain (“mostly barre-type work. It feels wonderful”) and looks to the future: “My next tattoo,” she says, “will be toe shoes.”