The Adventures of Ticklemouse

When the author’s two children (a boy and a girl) were young, they often crawled into bed with his wife and him in the morning, he would make up stories about two little mice, Ticklemouse and his friend Lively, who lived in the same house as the little boy or girl, depending on who was listening. Ticklemouse was the author’s right hand and Lively his left, and they loved to tickle the kids whenever the mice got excited during the story. He never knew where the stories would go as he made them up, but over time, several were repeated often enough that they became memorable. When his kids grew up and had kids of their own, the author wrote down four of the stories and discovered that they were just as popular with his grandkids. These stories of shared laughter and fun became The Adventures of Ticklemouse. The author hopes you and your children or grandchildren enjoy them as much as his did and still do.

John was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Port Angeles. His love for trails began in the Olympic National Park, where he worked four college summers on trail crews. He got his degree in mechanical engineering at the UW, then worked at the Applied Physics Lab at the UW before joining the Peace Corps to avoid going into the military. He married Dottie Davis and raised two kids, Ian and Theresa (the first of Ticklemouse’s best friends). John and his family have hiked nearly all the trails in Mt. Rainier National Park. The hardest physical achievement of his life was standing on the summit of Mt. Rainier with his 14-year-old son. John loved his 30-year professional career with Weyerhaeuser R&D, inventing, designing, building, testing and licensing equipment for wood products.