Mice found living in Kmart boot display, get adopted as pets

BISMARCK, N.D. — A pair of North Dakota brothers are enjoying a family of mice their mother let them bring home from their local Kmart Monday. But the mice didn't come from the pet section, they were found in a pair of winter boots.

Talon and Deakon Riederer along with their mom, Shasta, were not sure at first what the critters were that came rolling out of the new winter boot.

"'Mom,' he goes, 'Mom, look.' I honestly thought it was Vienna Sausages rolling around the floor, until they started moving, but then we heard them squeaking," Shasta told WDAY.

They were not sausages, but a family of mice.  First they saw two, then counted a total of seven.

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Kmart didn't want the mice, but the Riederer boys did and convinced their mom they should keep them. The boys and their mother got the mice home and got them comfortable just in time for feeding.

"I let the kids take them home, got a little fish tank ready for them, kids put them in there and they've been happy ever since," said Shasta.

They will eventually be released into the wild.

"So proud of them that they have that kind of compassion that they are willing to save mice when it would have grossed everybody else out," said Shasta.

The Kmart store says all of the other boot boxes were checked and there were no more mice, but the store brought in an exterminator just to make sure.

CNN/WDAY