Sipsworth is a wonderful story of two unlikely creatures to develop life altering and lifelong friendship. They met when 83-year-old Helen came back, after 30 years of living and working as a doctor in Australia, to Westminster Crescent, where she grew up.
In her new home, Helen found an abandoned fish tank with toys in it and took it inside. Little did she know that there was a mouse in it. At first, she did not know what to do with it. She called the animal shelter for pickup, visited the hardware store to ask for ways on how to capture and release it, and went to the local library to know more about how to temporarily take care of it. While waiting for a plan to unfold, Helen and the mouse worked out a quiet routine of watching television and eating together. Helen even made up a name for him, "Sipsworth," based on the bottlecap container where she placed his drinking water inside the pie box.
Everything seemed quiet and peaceful until Helen noticed Sipsworth was gasping for air, during what Helen would come to know was an acute respiratory attack. Helen panicked but managed to nurse him to recovery by going to the hospital to get the help that he needed. She managed to get assistance from Dr. Jamal (heart surgeon), medicine from the vet, and the hardware store owner to build him an oxygen chamber.
When Sipsworth was on the mend, Helen also had a cardiac emergency. Luckily, she was surrounded with people who had helped her with Sipsworth's condition. Dr. Jamal took her to the hospital in an ambulance and performed the surgery.
It might have been okay to say that Helen saved Sipsworth, but the way the story went, they both saved each other. They both had a second chance of finding love through each other and the people around them.
Truth be told, when I started reading the book, I had an unexplainable urge to clean and organize my stuff. I made sure that food was placed in an airtight container and automatically took the garbage out. But finishing the book made me think differently. I even talked to the squirrel outside to ask what their take was on being a pet (just kidding).
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