Truth, trust and flaming mice

As a reporter, I like to believe everything printed in the pages of a newspaper is true. It is part of the trust between a newspaper and its readers, that we will do our best to report a story fully and accurately and that you, after reading that story, will use the pages on which it appeared to line the bottoms of your bird cages.
Still, sometimes it's hard to know what to believe. There has been a disturbing number of stories in recent years about reporters who fudged facts and in some cases simply made up stories. New York Times reporter Jayson Blair is the best-known example, but I have my doubts about Dear Abbey, too.
Then there are the stories that are so fantastic you want to believe them no matter how hard it might be.
Take my favorite story of recent weeks. It is perhaps the best tale of revenge since the nerds taught the Adams College jocks a thing or two with an improbably well-produced talent show number. It comes from New Mexico, and it involves a flaming mouse setting fire to the home of the man who first trapped him, then threw him in a pile of burning leaves. Really, how can you go wrong?
As reported on CNN.com, the story began with an 81-year-old man named Luciano Mares. Mares, it seems, had a mouse problem. And he did what just about anybody with a rodent infestation would do. He set traps.
Mares told reporters he caught this particular spiteful mouse in a glue trap Jan. 7. When he couldn't get it unstuck, he threw the mouse, trap and all, into a pile of burning leaves in his yard. The fire melted the glue. The flaming mouse scampered back into the house - possibly screaming, "vengeance" in a high-pitched mouse language as it ran - and set the house on fire. The house was destroyed.
"That dang mouse crawled in there," Mares reportedly told the media from the hotel where he was staying with his nephew. "I have an awful hate for those critters."
Frankly, who can blame him? If a flaming puppy had burned down my house, I'd think twice before my next trip to the pound. Even if the puppy was really cute.
If the story had stopped there, it might have been the best news story of the year. But then, a few days later, Mares changed his mind. The fire, he said, was the result of high winds, not revenge-minded vermin. I'm not sure I've ever been more disappointed.
And if the story had ended there, well, it might have gone down as one of the biggest disappointments of the year, somewhere close behind the Super Bowl that will be played a couple of weeks from now.
But then, the very next day, Mares changed his story again, this time back to his original story. Yes, he said, it really was the mouse.
And apparently this time he really, really meant it.
For the record, Fort Sumner fire chief Juan Chavez, whose department responded to the fire, believes Mares' original story. According to CNN.com, the department's record of the fire will include the mouse-related incident as the cause.
I don't know what to believe. If the mouse really did cause the fire, it would be great. If it didn't it would be a big letdown. For now, it's mostly just confusing.