"We wanted to leave the rat race and join the mouse race," said Phyllis, who among other jobs worked at a Jewish day school, a private high school, an affordable housing program and as a cake decorator.

Glen, who labored for 25 years as an applications engineer for the world's largest tool manufacturer, said retiring from that job was retirement number one. He is currently in what he calls retirement number two: serving bed and breakfast customers. He is looking forward to a third retirement, when he will actually vacation in bed and breakfasts.
—Tom Wharton, "Mouse Race Pace Suits Them Fine," Salt Lake Tribune, May 3, 2003, Saturday

And in those suburban communities that routinely become the landing place for many of the urban refugees, demographics experts say there is a new phenomenon: "The mouse race," a scaled-down version of the urban rat race that has long-time residents heading for even smaller towns and for other states. ...

Mendocino is another "mouse race" county.
—James M. Sweeney, "The Joads go home — Has the Golden State lost its luster?," California Journal, March 1, 1992