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The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => DF Reference Collection => Topic started by: Serack on June 15, 2012, 02:13:33 AM
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This is an attempt to outline a strong theory post for Mouse's Origin based off of lots of earlier discussions from about a year ago. Also, like many of my theory posts, this one is heavily reliant on text quotes and WoJ's and rather than pepper it with blocks of quotes, I'll place them all at the bottom and reference them in the body of the theory as I go.
I like to split Mouse's origin into three ideas. His physical origin, his temporal origin, and the source of his power.
Mouse's Physical Origin:
Physically Mouse was probably born in a monastery somewhere on the Tibetan Plateau. This is based off of Harry's description of them at the beginning of Blood Rites,txt#1 and the assumption that Esmerelda's "Land of Dreams"txt#4 is a reference to Edmund Candler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Candler)'s and other British descriptions (http://www.american-buddha.com/myth.shangri.htm) of Tibet in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Props to lovejoy69 (http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php?action=profile;u=28227) for bringing Candler to my attention)
Mouse's Temporal Origin:
According to Harry in BRtxt#1 and Bob in WNtxt#2 Mouse is quite possibly from a lineage of Scions of a "celestial guard spirit." Harry and Bob both make their descriptions with a little skepticism sprinkled in, but the reactions of several others when they see Mousetxt#3 lend pretty strong weight to this idea.
Mouse's source of power:
Text Reference #5 is the reason why this gets it's own section, and it is where I have the most fun theorizing about Mouse. Lea seems to think that Mouse needs to be near Tibet to truly exert his strength, but Mouse implies that being near Harry is good enough for him. This coupled with the Wikipedia description of Foo Dogs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_guardian_lions) makes me think that the Foo Dog's typical source of power is tied to the purpose/calling of guarding the mystically/magically significant Buddhist temples. No guard duty, no power. And Mouse cheats by guarding something possibly just as metaphysically important... Harry. I think their mutual loyalty is heavily tied into this too.
Aforementioned WoJ's and Book Excerpts
Text Reference #1Thomas glanced back at the box. "Cute little furballs. What's their story?"
"Guardian dogs from some monastery in the Himalayas. Someone snatched them and came here. A couple of monks hired me to get them back."
"What, they don't have dog pounds in Tibet?"
They believe these dogs have a foo heritage."
"Is that like epilepsy or something?"
I snorted... "The monks think their great-grandcestor was a divine spirit-animal. Celestial guard spirit. Foo dog. They believe it makes the bloodline special."
Text Reference #2
Bob on Foo Dogs:
Well, the're not entirely mortal," Bob said. They're Scions of a celstial being called a Foo Dog and a mortal canine. The're very intelligent, very loyal, tough, and can seriously kick ass if they need to do it. But mostly, they're sentinels. They keep an eye out for dark spirits or dark energy, guard the people or places they're supposed to guard, and alert others to the presence of danger."
Text Reference #3
[Ancient] Mai looked as if someone had hit her between the eyes with a sledgehammer. "That," she said, in a breathless tone, "is a Foo dog." She stared at me. "Where did you get such a thing? And why were you allowed to keep it?"
"He sort of picked me," I said.
Text Reference #4
"What is it, our love?" Esteban asked quietly.
"The Ik'k'uox," she said in a distant, puzzled voice. "It is in pain. It flees. It..." She opened her eyes very wide, and suddenly they flooded in solid black, just as the creature's had been. "Oh! It cheated!" Her face turned down to mine, and she bared her fangs. "It cheated! It brought a demon of its own! A mountain ice demon fron the Land of Dreams!"
"If you don't exercise them, they're impossible," I said, philosophically.
Text Reference #5
"You are far from your sources of power here, my dear demon."
"I live with a wizard. I cheat."
@longshotauthor: Oh, wow, here is almost exactly Mouse: http://bit.ly/f6Ot9M
(http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z433/serack/Mouse-1.png)
More recent WOJs on the subject:
badowntown: Is mouse a Foo dog or a Temple dog? My understanding is that Foo dogs are Tibetan celestial beings, and Temple dogs are Foo dogs crossed with mortal canines (possibly multiple generations removed).
You, at one point, referred to mouse as a Temple dog, but Ancient Mai at one point in Turn Coat exclaims something like "That is a Foo Dog. Where did you get it!?". Could you clarify?
Jim: You're splitting hairs, here. They're the same thing (for every practical purpose). A Foo Dog is a celestial being which chooses to give up its divinity (and immortality) to serve and protect in the mortal world. Part of being mortal is having offspring, who share in their progenitor's power.
Marathonbrewer: Will Mouse continue to operate at Foo dog level now that he's guarding Maggie? When he faced down Lea in Mexico she said that he was far from his place of power, but he replied that he cheated by living with a wizard. Does that mean he needs to live with a full-fledged wizard or just someone with wizard talent? Obviously he'd still be a giant killing machine with a snarky personality, but I worry that he might try to bite off more than he can chew if he loses the Superdog status.
Jim: Here's something I'm not sure will ever make the books: Mouse draws the fundaments of his power from a house's threshold. /Weaker/ at the /Carpenter's/? Ye gods and little fishes, he went from Thing to Hulk when he moved in to protect Maggie. But, having grown up with a wizard who regards conventions as things to mourn as they are shattered into little pieces, and to speak nicely about in retrospect, he's learned to use other kinds of power, too.
-Elegast
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It may be outside the bounds you want to set, but I noticed that the Wiki entry on Foo Dogs mentions multiple times that Foo Dogs always come in pairs, one male and one female. Combine that with this WoJ...
About Mouse's siblings
he does have a bunch of brothers and sisters who wonder how come they haven’t heard from him. ‘You never howl, you never pee on anything….’ And plus, there is…uh, I will just say that the possibility exists that Harry didn’t rescue all of them, and if so, where are the others?
I'm actually kind of surprised that this one hasn't sparked rampant speculation yet honestly. Especially since Jim wants to bring in some Asian lore eventually.
Oh, and one more excerpt and WoJ for your Lea/Mouse conversation:
Mouse has just threatened Lea in order to get her to change everyone back from hounds, including causing a mini-earthquake and St. Elmo's fire to start falling from his mouth.
Changes p.350The Leanansidhe shook her head slowly. Then she said, "How did Dresden ever win you?"
"He didn't," Mouse said. "I won him."
#136 “I am interested in knowing if we will ever get back to Mouse’s comment about “winning” Harry. I’m totally mystified. ”
It might help to know that while Mouse and Lea are both using the same word, winning, they are talking about entirely different meanings of it. As a result, Lea was mystified, too.
The "winning" may have something to do with Mouse having some special source of power.
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My personal take on Mouse and Lea meaning very different things is that Lea said "won" like a prize, Mouse said "won" like he won Harry's heart over. Harry didn't want him at first, Mouse made Harry fall in love with him.
And at the KC signing Jim was more direct, I remember him saying that Harry didn't get all the puppies, there was no "possibility" thrown in the sentence.
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That would be how I would interpret the winning exchange as well. As for speculation on Mouse's siblings, I think we just don't have enough info to speculate much. We haven't seen any of them since Harry rescued some of them and my mythology knowledge may not be so great but I'm not aware of any demons that generally look like giant purple monkeys that fling burning poo. So yeah, not much to go on.
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Now wait a minute. I thought everybody had heard of these guys ;D
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Nikko.gif)
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I don't think everyone's heard of "The Wizard Of Oz"...or at least watched it. I loved the reference.
Sometimes I have to look up certain pop references when Jim uses them in the books.
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as far as Mouses packmates are concerned i would put good odds that somewhere in the BAT during some sort of Chicken Pizza level fight somebody is going to open a WAY and we will see a whole PACK of Temple Dogs come running.
(of course i would also put odds that there is a Mrs Mouse running about somewhere)
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No guard duty, no power. And Mouse cheats by guarding something possibly just as metaphysically important... Harry. I think their mutual loyalty is heavily tied into this too.
Makes sense. Just look, everytime Mouse does something powerfu, he's guarding something. Barks to wake up the inhabitants of a burning building, survives getting hit by a car in defense of Harry, expresses his willingness to take on Mab's #2 Faerie to protect Harry and his allies.
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Now wait a minute. I thought everybody had heard of these guys ;D
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Nikko.gif)
Link to "these guys" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_monkeys)
I had chalked up the poo throwing flying monkeys as Jim dreaming up a generic throw away adversary cobbled together from the flying monkeys of Oz, some comedy mixed with reality (monkeys flinging poo) and Jim's need to make things difficult for Harry (the incindeary part).
I wasn't supprised when my concept of how Jim came up with that baddie was closely parallel to his description of where he came up with "the Ick"
Where did the "Ick" come from?
I needed a monster that fit that outline. And then I looked up enough old Mayan words to find the word for "dark" and the word for "eater," and "Ik'k" was dark and "uox" was eater. I just put it together from that, "Ik'k'uox." The heartbeat getting louder thing, I'm sure I read that in a game book somewhere, it mighta been chill had a monster that way. I really loved it that you could hear its heart beating so loud that you could hear it getting close. So I kinda put it together on the fly, that one. Like "I need a monster that does this and is like that, Ok. Alright. Now quick, go and find a good excuse for what to name it. And then figure out how to pronounce it. And then forget how to pronounce it because Dresden's just gonna to call it the Ick.
*nudges the train*
I think it is interesting how Jim did a good job of merging the Tibetan Mastiff (http://www.akc.org/breeds/tibetan_mastiff/history.cfm) with the "Foo Dogs" which are actually statues of Lions outside Buddhist temples, but since the origional chinese sculpters had never seen a lion they modeled their temple lions after dogs.
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What confuses me, is why does Uriel call Mouse "Little Brother" when Mouse is from from a Buddhist tradition? What does a Foo Dog have to do with Christianity?
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What confuses me, is why does Uriel call Mouse "Little Brother" when Mouse is from from a Buddhist tradition? What does a Foo Dog have to do with Christianity?
I think it is in context of the guarding of and promotion of goodness. He is a minor spirit compared to Uriel, but both are in the same business, more or less.
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I think it is in context of the guarding of and promotion of goodness. He is a minor spirit compared to Uriel, but both are in the same business, more or less.
I had the same line of thougth, both are guardians. So maybe the little brother, was in the brothers in arms meaning of brotherhood.
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I think it is in context of the guarding of and promotion of goodness. He is a minor spirit compared to Uriel, but both are in the same business, more or less.
^ this
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as far as Mouse's packmates are concerned i would put good odds that somewhere in the BAT during some sort of Chicken Pizza level fight somebody is going to open a WAY and we will see a whole PACK of Temple Dogs come running.
(of course i would also put odds that there is a Mrs Mouse running about somewhere)
Two things come to mind, here. One, from the outset, I thought that Jim made it pretty clear that not all of the litter was retrieved and turned over to the monk. Not just Mouse, but that more than one of the puppies wasn't there. It just seemed to me that if the monk was indicating that only one littermate was absent, he would have said something closer to, "Where's the other one, did you see what happened to him?"
The question that would follow on from that, of course, is -- what would have happened to the puppy or puppies who didn't make it into the lifeboat, so to speak? Of course death is always a major possibility. Although a very sad outcome, it's what one might naturally expect evil demons to want to do to such powerfully good entities. But that doesn't fit, because if so, why pup-nap them out of Tibet in the first place? You'd think that the bad guys would kill the puppies as soon as they seized them, or if not, due to the danger of other Foo dogs charging to their defense, then as soon as they had put sufficient distance between themselves and the monastery.
So what exactly were they all seized for?? Did whoever was calling the shots for the demons plan to do something or to trick the baby puppies in some way, to skew them from serving goodness to serving evil? Will Mouse face his own personal Civil War in the BAT, brother against brother, each equally loyal and dedicated to opposing sides? Mouse to Harry and the protection of humankind and of the world as we know it versus Brother-BadDog to some misguided belief that the bad guys ought to triumph?
Second point is, even with reincarnation and the Wheel of Karma, Mouse came into Harry's life while still a tiny puppy. So, no Mrs. Mouse yet at that point, not in this present lifetime. That doesn't mean that there won't be one coming along, of course. Mouse may be a bachelor knight-errant now, selflessly dedicated to personally guarding Maggie Jr. and Molly and Harry himself, but I certainly hope that one day there comes along a strong, lithe candidate who catches Mouse's eye. Sure, the timing of the meet-up will be maximally inconvenient, but that doesn't mean that the chemistry won't flow.
I guess I was wrong -maybe it's three things, not two. Third point, Ancient Mai said Foo dog, and she doesn't seem to be the kind of wizard who carelessly misspeaks. She didn't say Temple dog. I kinda suspect that Mouse isn't a scion, a Temple dog, a mixture of celestial and mortal canine ancestries. I think he's all Foo.
Maybe he needs a T-shirt logo like the vest a service dog wears so they're immediately recognizable. "All Foo All The Time!," or something.
Harry's birth was planned for a purpose. And we know that Uriel, on behalf of TWG's intentions for the world, isn't at all above playing chess with earthly lives when he deems it necessary. So, was that litter whelped on purpose in order to have young strong Ice Demon adults in place for some upcoming Asian cataclysmic battle? Not Temple dogs, but in fact True Foo all the way?
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What confuses me, is why does Uriel call Mouse "Little Brother" when Mouse is from from a Buddhist tradition? What does a Foo Dog have to do with Christianity?
I have been playing with the idea that no one religion is 100% correct. I think the creator put part of the truth into each religion and only by working together will we come up with the truth. Also mankind has had 1000s of years to change all the words around and such so I don't think any current religion is still in it's original form so we really don't know how much they really may have had in common.
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i can't believe i didn't understand the flying monkeys joke, i mean it was well before my time but still i feel stupid anyway.
i love mouse i feel bad that we probably wont see a whole lot of him in the next few books.
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The followup question, of course, is "Who's the Wicked Witch who sent the monkeys to get the little dogs, and maybe Harry, too?"
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Harry only briefly mentions in the book, Blood Rites, that it took him a week to hunt down some punk wannabe sorcerer that kidnapped them and wait until he/she left to get food so that Harry could paralyze his/her flying monkeys and get out with the puppies.
I always wondered why the kidnapper never followed up on revenge through the book Blood Rites, or the series so far...
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Harry only briefly mentions in the book, Blood Rites, that it took him a week to hunt down some punk wannabe sorcerer that kidnapped them and wait until he/she left to get food so that Harry could paralyze his/her flying monkeys and get out with the puppies.
I always wondered why the kidnapper never followed up on revenge through the book Blood Rites, or the series so far...
There are a few possibilities. If he was hired help he would not be personally interested in revenge, only his employers and we may have met them already.
Harries reputation could have scared him away.
His employer could have killed him. Either to clear up loose ends or because he failed.
He could have been brought in from somewhere else and just gone back. With nevernever traveling magic crime would be even more international than normal crime is today.
He may not even know who Harry is.
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yeah i was suprised that harry didn'tkill the sorceror( he probably did not violate a law of magic).
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Harry probably didn't pursue the punk wizard, because he wasn't a big threat. He stole puppies, didn't kill anyone. Besides, Harry didn't know the pups were as special as they turned out to be.
And I was wondering...
The Wardhounds at the White Council, the Chinese Temple dog statues that come to life, aren’t they most likely Foo Dog spirits, too? Mouse's brothers and sisters?
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About how mouse might've gone from "Foo dog scion" to "Foo dog"... couldn't he have, well, chosen, either on purose or inadverdently, through his actions?
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Harry probably didn't pursue the punk wizard, because he wasn't a big threat. He stole puppies, didn't kill anyone. Besides, Harry didn't know the pups were as special as they turned out to be.
And I was wondering...
The Wardhounds at the White Council, the Chinese Temple dog statues that come to life, aren’t they most likely Foo Dog spirits, too? Mouse's brothers and sisters?
No, they're constructs made by Ancient Mai IIRC.
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Jim likes to mention that he's a lazy writer and doesn't like to waste characters that he's already developed. Mouse's kidnapper used summoned help from the NN. Hmm, doesn't that sound a little familiar? What other practitioner do we know that works for hire and likes to use primarily summoned muscle?
I think we should start looking at Binder more closely as a candidate for the kidnapper.
Someone had to have arranged for the puppies to be kidnapped. It's not too much of a stretch to assume that the BC had a hand in the scheme (what evildoer wants a litter of foo dogs in his backyard?), and Binder has a history of working with the BC in Turn Coat. A puppy heist seems just his speed from the background that we get for Binder. He's a careful guy but limited in the precautions he can take. Harry does a little mundane investigating to figure out when the kidnapper went out for dinner, but would that involve a good enough look to identify him? Plus, the kidnapper could have been using lackeys to help out if Harry did identify anyone involved in the heist.
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I just has an idea of why an evil wizard or creature would like to get a baby Foo Dog. It is my belief that a Foo Dog draws its supernatural power in the act of guarding something( temples) or someone ( Harry). It appears to me that the foo Dog binds themselves to the person or place. So if a dark wizard gets a young puppy foo dog then it will bind to him and become like him ( Dark Foo Dog).
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nice going so far Serack. there was a piece of a quote from the book you cut off i think is significant though. when you talk about his sentinel abilities you left off that he can harm spiritual creatures and his bark effects across the NN boundry. that is powerful in itself.
as to when he tells Lea he won Harry. i have always said it was meaning he won the PRR (Puppy Royal Rumble) to stay with Harry.
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I have different take on the "win-win" conversation between lea and mouse in changes. I believe lea means win as in win harry over or harrys love, while mouse uses win as in winning the lotto or the best job. See it could be that mouses litter had a certain number of lets say slots to be filled and he feels that he got the best slot, job, or opportunity being he was so adventerous. Also it could be that mouse got the top job, guarding the outsider bane!!
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Really only related to the first post, but in a thread that discussed things that Uriel has tweaked, I suggested that Heaven might have arranged things very slightly, to get the Foo Dogs to pass through Chicago.
If Heaven can tweak things to get Sanya a SUV when he's going to be needing one, they can certainly play with flight delays other minor things.
Mind you, I'm not suggesting that Heaven arranged the theft, just mitigated the damage by making sure that they passed through Harry's territory & making sure the Monks contacted him. Maybe also just getting Mouse to appreciate Harry, without messing with his free will.
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What confuses me, is why does Uriel call Mouse "Little Brother" when Mouse is from from a Buddhist tradition? What does a Foo Dog have to do with Christianity?
As they are both "servants of The Divine" they are in a way "brothers". Not much but i would bet that Doctor Wilburn would still take his shoes of if he visited a Buddist Temple.
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One thing to note, text-wise, Mouse enters the story immediately after Harry is exposed to Lasciel's shadow. Something tells me this isn't a coinicidence. If I were Mr. Sunshine, I might makes sure that a certain wizard that seems to be tied to many important events had a positive influence in his life that balanced out the negative.
Lash was a corrupting influence, whereas Mouse gave harry positive memories to draw on, even a motivation. There is a passage in Dead Beat, where Harry is feeling like he is in over his head, and he recalls that Mouse "thought I was pretty darned cool" and it picks him up.
I don't think this was a 7 words type balancing of the scales. But more of a life-line if you will.
nice going so far Serack. there was a piece of a quote from the book you cut off i think is significant though. when you talk about his sentinel abilities you left off that he can harm spiritual creatures and his bark effects across the NN boundry. that is powerful in itself.
as to when he tells Lea he won Harry. i have always said it was meaning he won the PRR (Puppy Royal Rumble) to stay with Harry.
and the part of Blood Rights where Harry looks back at the Pups and finds that the Notch-eared Puppy had fought his way to the top of the dog pile supports your theory wonderfully.
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One thing to note, text-wise, Mouse enters the story immediately after Harry is exposed to Lasciel's shadow. Something tells me this isn't a coinicidence. If I were Mr. Sunshine, I might makes sure that a certain wizard that seems to be tied to many important events had a positive influence in his life that balanced out the negative.
Text-wise he might have been immediately introduced, but chronologically in the Dresdenverse it was close to a year's time between the two events.
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Text-wise he might have been immediately introduced, but chronologically in the Dresdenverse it was close to a year's time between the two events.
Though, to be fair to the idea, it would likely take time to arrange that kind of thing and have it be carried out.
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One thing to note, text-wise, Mouse enters the story immediately after Harry is exposed to Lasciel's shadow. Something tells me this isn't a coinicidence. If I were Mr. Sunshine, I might makes sure that a certain wizard that seems to be tied to many important events had a positive influence in his life that balanced out the negative.
I suppose that may be one reason that at the end of GS Mr. Sunshine and mouse seemed to have a working relationship. though the timeline dose not fit in the way you say but it dose seem to fit the modus operandi of Mr. Sunshine.
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Though, to be fair to the idea, it would likely take time to arrange that kind of thing and have it be carried out.
That's assuming that an Archangel doesn't have intellectus, or foresight to plan ahead. And I think we've seen evidence enough from Uriel's comments in The Warrior and other places, that he can see ahead to some degree.
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Second point is, even with reincarnation and the Wheel of Karma, Mouse came into Harry's life while still a tiny puppy. So, no Mrs. Mouse yet at that point, not in this present lifetime. That doesn't mean that there won't be one coming along, of course. Mouse may be a bachelor knight-errant now, selflessly dedicated to personally guarding Maggie Jr. and Molly and Harry himself, but I certainly hope that one day there comes along a strong, lithe candidate who catches Mouse's eye. Sure, the timing of the meet-up will be maximally inconvenient, but that doesn't mean that the chemistry won't flow.
That's a very sensible theory, LoveJoy. There's a lot of eligible knight-errants in the Dresdenverse. Mouse being one of them, especially since Foo dogs are always seen in pairs, makes sense.
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One thing to note, text-wise, Mouse enters the story immediately after Harry is exposed to Lasciel's shadow. Something tells me this isn't a coinicidence. If I were Mr. Sunshine, I might makes sure that a certain wizard that seems to be tied to many important events had a positive influence in his life that balanced out the negative.
Lash was a corrupting influence, whereas Mouse gave harry positive memories to draw on, even a motivation. There is a passage in Dead Beat, where Harry is feeling like he is in over his head, and he recalls that Mouse "thought I was pretty darned cool" and it picks him up.
I don't think this was a 7 words type balancing of the scales. But more of a life-line if you will.
and the part of Blood Rights where Harry looks back at the Pups and finds that the Notch-eared Puppy had fought his way to the top of the dog pile supports your theory wonderfully.
i sort of agree with this. we have always seen Mouse being attentive to Harry, licking his hand after the SoulSlap he gave Thorned and such. Bob says we share our soul w/ each other through hugs and good times and such. what if Mouse is helping him regen his soul and aid Harry by giving him doggie hugs and such.
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...but I certainly hope that one day there comes along a strong, lithe candidate who catches Mouse's eye. Sure, the timing of the meet-up will be maximally inconvenient, but that doesn't mean that the chemistry won't flow.
I'm sure Tara has a sister or 5.
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I'm sure Tara has a sister or 5.
or that a message has gotten to The Temple concerning a FOO DOG running around Chicago (wanna bet that Ancient Mai outright sent a scroll to the mountains right after she saw Mouse in Turncoat??) if you assume that Foos are born as Pairs then Mrs Mouse is running around in the mountains without Her Mate.
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Or Mrs. Mouse is the puppy that Harry didn't necessarily save.
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Or Mrs. Mouse is the puppy that Harry didn't necessarily save.
Considering Harry's habit of trying to save Distressed Damsels, it would be quite amusing to watch him playing second chair to Mouse being the stubborn, headstrong, White Knight, rushing into danger to save a woman (dog). He would get to be an amusing hypocrite again, like he was when he first got Mouse, and commented about his puppy behaviour, even though he acted the same way. ;D
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Saving some mouse geekery here
(http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z433/serack/Kaden/t_mastif2.jpg)
(http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z433/serack/Kaden/t_mastif1.jpg)
I think the lady who was walking "Edward" was both thrilled that I recognized a Tibetan Mastiff, and a little wierded out by my enthusiasm.
Cool pic, and now I have a face to go with your name as well :)
Was it a young dog, it seems quite small compared to what I was picturing?
Nah he wasn't young. Really that guy wasn't bigger than a Rotwiller (msp?), I was just excited that I saw and recognized a tibetan mastif for the first time even if he wasn't as huge as my image of Mouse. I think I've seen videos of specimen's in China that are closer to Mouse's size, but really Mouse is kind of an amalgamation of a tibetan mastif (orgin story) with a Caucasian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_Shepherd_Dog), (That article describes specimens used as russian prison guard dogs as "stand six feet tall, are over 200 pounds and are roughly the size of a bear.")
here is a video that gives a good idea of how monserous a caucasion (and by association mouse) is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhdXFZ-y7Ms