Mystery of the headless mouse

One summer morning, in the last year of my PhD, a most curious incident occurred. The incident presents several features of exceptional interest:

A gruesome corpse of a mouse was found in the Guinea Pig cage. It was about the length of a forefinger, with matted grey fur. Two spindly legs and a tail protruded from the deformed mess at an odd angle. The scene was particularly disturbing because the head and the upper limbs were missing. The body laid near the food bowl, inches away from Nutty who continued devouring her breakfast with nonchalance.

Several suspects and theories have been put forth, some feel the pigs have been undernourished and its only natural that they begin supplementing their diet:
“Nutty probably held the mouse down with her considerable mass while missy chewed the head off.”

Others feel that the motive could have been more sinister:
“It’s a Sicilian message from the pigs, ‘Viscoelastic sleeps with the headless mouse’”

A search was conducted for the head, the bedding of the cage was combed but no trace of it could be found. We proceeded with the autopsy, Dr Snails made the following observation:
“the victim appears to be missing a head. detailed observation also shows a high
degree of irreversible lateral compression, suggesting that this mouse was
attacked from the side with great force.”



The investigation continues…

With the suspicion that these warm fuzzy furballs might be blood thirsty killers, things can never be the same again…