“He was good at listening and new exactly when I was sad or happy. Then he would follow me around and comfort me,” Silvia said to children’s magazine Kamratposten (KP).
According to the Queen, the Sommerlath family were gifted the animal by some missionaries when they gave away medicines. He stayed with them for four years, to the then 9-year-old girl’s delight.
Today, the Queen doesn’t think it’s appropriate to keep a money as a pet and away from its natural habitat but at the time, she told the paper, Mickey felt more like a friend than a pet.
When he first came to the family, Mickey was very angry and frightened and it took a lot of cajoling by the young Silvia to get in his good books.
She approached the distressed animal with great caution.
“I would sing and be happy. Next day I’d do the same, but a little closer,” said the Queen to KP.
Eventually, the animal warmed to her and from that day forward they were the “best of friends”.
However, the animal was very mischievous and Silvia remembers many occasions when she got into trouble on account of her friend.
“Sometimes he would run away and once he climbed out on the roof and broke the neighbours’ TV-antenna. Another time he pilfered all their fruit,” she told the paper.
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