SERIOUSLY!
And it's all been set in stone since the day DOUGLAS ENGELBART made the very first COMPUTER MOUSE at MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA.
No seriously, that's the actual mouse above.
I first saw this mouse as a picture in an old book that the LATCH KEY after school program had and I was mesmerized while confused about it's presence.
But how did the MOUSE came to be?
ENGELBART wanted to further develop how a COMPUTER should really work since at this point, even with MINICOMPUTERS, 
They were still way out of reach for the average consumer due to the high price....
But that's not all:
They also need an interface to work with and nobody's gonna have the time or money to maintain or restock ink and paper on a teletype terminal
"I demand INK & Paper... STAT!!!!!"
So, wanting to make the Computer easier to use for both the average consumer and the typical business person,
DOUG,
"THAT'S ME!"
NO! Not that DOUG!
I meant DOUG ENGELBART!!!!
Got to work on what would eventually be everyday tools for the average user.
His team at SRI INTERNATIONAL developed Computer Interface elements that include BITMAPPED GRAPHICS
Hypertext,
That.....
More like the Hypertexts that make up links to part of my blog or other websites...
Such as THIS FOR EXAMPLE:
Telecommunication
For late 1960s Telecommunication before the says of ZOOM, TEAMS, etc.,
This was way ahead of it's time.
And others.
This would eventually lead to the MODERN GUI Operating environment that we use today.
Microsoft Windows 11
Mac OS Tahoe (Version 26)
Fedora Linux Version 44
But you need something to interface with a Graphic Environment.
After all, using a keyboard is no good like that.....
And nobody is gonna dedicate their arm muscle strength to use a light pen for extended hours on end.
So....
To relieve the arm strength for the light pen,
Engelbart made the first patents for what would become the mouse
By 1964, BILL ENGLISH would later join ARC to built the prototype shown below:
And thus, the very first MOUSE was born....
He did not have a name for it at first and at first, was considering the name:
X-Y Indicator.
But the name didn't stick well.... or for too long.
And then an employee made a comment that the Braided Cable looks very similar to a Mouse's tail
And because the Cord was at the end of the mouse,
just like how a real Mouse's tail is at the tailbone area of the actual rodent
"I resemble that remark!!!!"
So.....
That's why the name MOUSE remained ever since.
I've also read that the CURSOR was called CAT but I refute that.
While ultimately the First Mouse wound up being a prototype, it did lead to development of another prototype that's more robust than the original:
And this is the one that was used by ENGELBART and his fellow co-workers during that famous presentation called THE MOTHER OF ALL DEMOS.
If you want to watch the presentation, here's the YOUTUBE link:
The mouse had a slow start getting used in Computers during the 70s as many people still preferred the old school Command Interface since the teletypes and the later Glass Terminals used that interface.
One of the very first computers to use the mouse was the XEROX ALTO in 1973.
And even then, not many people would still be willing to use the mouse yet.
Not even the 1977 TRINITY of COMPUTERS used the mouse when they made their debut
It wasn't until the IBM PC in 1981 that is was made possible to have the mouse ready for general users.
Yes, I know that computers like the APPLE II, the Commodore 64, the Atari 8-Bit Series, Tandy Color Computers, they all gained the ability to later use a mouse
But for the sake of this post, I'm mentioning players like IBM and APPLE...
One of the very first PC MICE to make their debut were a few of them.
The Microsoft Mouse
The Logitech Smaky Mouse
The MOUSE SYSTEMS Optical Mouse, 
Just to name a few.
So no....
It wasn't APPLE who invented the MOUSE for the MACINTOSH or LISA Computers.
The MOUSE has been with us since the early PC Days, since the XEROX days....
and even since ENGELBART's patents.
Of course, they all have one thing in Common:
THEY'RE ALL MADE OF PLASTIC!!!
Whether it's hard, flimsy, or ABS, all Mice use an outer shell that's made of plastic.
And it doesn't matter whether the mouse is Opto-mechanical or Fully Optical,
The build quality of the mouse really matters.
But using a Mouse that's made of actual wood and not vinyl wrapped is something that we often don't see that much anymore.
An attempt was made in 1999 however to make MICE out of wood again..... sort of.
In 1999, the OBERHOFER Boutique Company just took the guts out of a LOGITECH WIRELESS MOUSE and put it in the shell of an actual hand carved Mouse made by a master woodsman who moved from AUSTRIA to the UNITED STATES around that time.
I wish I could show you photos but several GOOGLE(& DUCKDUCKGO) searches came up empty so instead, I'll just embed LGR's video talking about the mouse:
And while I've seen photos of WOODGRAIN MICE,
They're often of the fake wood, vinyl wrapped, or they use Bamboo instead of walnut or evergreen wood....
I'd rather prefer real wood to be use as the MOUSE shell...
Sure, it was a dubious effort for that AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN to just take an existing BOARD DESIGN to make OBERHOFER's mouse,
But at the same time, it was an effort that made the mouse all the more impressive, even if it was wireless.
