While the cat's away...

...is usually followed by "the mouse will play" (or the Swedish version translated into English: "the rats dance on the table")...

Well, the mice around me didn't really play or dance while I was away. Three of them got sick or hurt themselves. One mouse was hospitalized for two nights after an ambulance ride to the hospital. One mouse jumped real high and hurt itself and will most likely not be able to do its work properly for a whole year. (If we're to be a bit pessimistic, it might never go back to its work full-time. But we don't talk about that...) Another mouse is on antibiotics to fight an infection that left it coming behind on assignments in University.

And while all this was happening, I was in Tuscany, enjoying my life.