22
April
2009
Erica lasted just a day after my last blog entry. On the Friday night she was sat down the front of my top (for the warmth!!) eating bits of hobnob biscuit so I felt she’d picked up a bit but on Saturday morning it was obvious she wasn’t going to make it so I reheated her heat mat, made her comfortable and left her to go in peace. An hour later she was gone. 
A week after this I then had to make the most difficult decision there is for my Percy. Deep down I just knew it was time. The vet agreed completely so I said my goodbyes and let him go. I always insist on bringing them home afterwards so Percy is now sleeping in the garden along with all the other meeces I lost recently. I really hope he will be the last for a while now. 
I do however have some good news to report, about time methinks!! My poor Timmy who has been living alone since Pete passed away is so no longer. He is now happily introduced to the calmest of the foster boys (the black tan), now named Henry and the two foster girls who are now called Alice and Hope. They can now all stay permanently as they are living in the ruffy cage that was formerly Tim and Pete’s so at least something good has come from his passing. Given all the sad news recently this is fab and has cheered me up no end. Just two single boys and a pair left to sort out now.
Also Jessica’s chest has cleared up! I suspect it may be something that is going to bother her as she gets older but I can be on the alert for this but for now she is breathing without any noise at all which is a big relief!
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10
April
2009
Percy is deteriorating. He used to just about take his weight on his back legs although his movement of them was limited and stiff but now he drags them completely. Obviously this makes it harder for him to get around but more worryingly he has started to develop sore patches on his underside where it drags on the floor. He’s never had normal litter anyway because he couldn’t lift his feet over it so I don’t know how to make things easier for him. He still seems inquisitive and ok in himself but if he gets any worse he won’t really be able to get around his little tank at all and if the sore patches end up with broken skin (which is likely in time) then I just don’t think it’ll be fair to let him go on. Sadly I feel it’s just a matter of time now until I have to make that horrid decision for him.
And just to make matters worse Erica is ill. Literally in the space of 24 hours she seems to have lost weight and I’m very worried about her. Katy’s sudden death I and Sarah at Starlight Trust put down to her awful genetic background as the vet said their strange wart like growth were a sign that they have very poor genes. With Erica now looking so poorly so soon after and everyone else from their cage fitting fit and full of beans I think its even more likely. I have her in a hospital cage, have put her on anti biotics and childrens echinachea and am trying to tempt her with some high calorie foods. She is eating and drinking but seems so frail, please keep things crossed for my girl.
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8
April
2009
My little Katy is dead. Totally unexpected and without warning. Someone please remind me why I do this.
Posted: News
2
April
2009
It’s been stress, stress and more stress here recently. The mouse train arranged to get little black foster boy to his new home went off fine until his new owner failed to collect him her end. He spent a week in his travel carrier at one of the transporters homes waiting after which followed a mad panic trying to find a way to get him back to me again. Given it took several weeks to arrange getting him there in the first place this was a tall order and after a few possible leads came to nothing he ended up travelling to yet another show on then onto a new foster place. I spent one hideous weekend madly contacting anyone I could think of that might be able to help whilst generally stressing over where mousey was going to end up while also feeling guilty for letting him go and also helpless at not being able to just go get him! Thankfully in the end a lovely person in the midlands has taken him in for me and he is now safe and well cared for whilst he waits once again for a forever home to come up. Poor little man.
To add to this in the last couple of weeks I’ve had Jessica develop a rattly chest and my darling Pete go to the bridge. Jess I’m keeping an eye on as I don’t like to jump straight in with the anti-b’s but it’s still another thing to worry about and as for my Pete, he just seemed to give up. Logically you’d think if anything I’d have lost him when his skin was at it’s worse but it seems it’s quite often the case that they go once they’re on the mend instead. Frustrating and upsetting, which are pretty familiar emotions at the moment unfortunately!
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13
March
2009
Had a big clean out and sorted out the mousey stuff today so thought I would take photos of everyone at the same time. 
Firstly the freddy cage gang:
Digby
James
Maisy
Jessica
Katy
& Erica
Next my Timmy and poorly Pete. Believe it or not his neck/ears are looking better than they did!
Then we have little Percy
Pog the not-a-mouse
then all the fosters starting with black tan and his girlfriends:
and the single boys
Including the lucky one who is going to his new home on Sunday! 
This just leaves the six spinys who I didn’t get pics of today but I shall go on a mission to get some nice ones of them next. Given that they’re all super quick and mad as hatters this should be fun so wish me luck!
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26
February
2009
Poppy is dead. I was feeding the mice last night and her friend came rushing out to see me but no sign of Poppy so I went looking under the shelf for her and there she was on her side. I’m gutted to have lost both of them in such a short space of time especially as they were still relatively young at around 15/16 months.
Sleep tight girls. x
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23
February
2009
I brought back four little girls with me on Saturday as planned and they are absolutely adorable! The two fosters are now living with one of my neutered foster boys and are getting on great. He didn’t seem quite sure what to make of them to start with, bless him but before long the three of them were bundled together asleep in a tissue box. My girl Poppy is also now living with one of the foster boys as I noticed she was spending all her time alone since Dot passed away. I decided that she might be happier with a ‘fresh start’ so to speak and am pleased to say that moving her from the main group seems to have perked her up no end as well as meaning another of the boys has company now.
The new foster girls
& Poppy (right) snuggled up with her new friend.
My own two girls are a bit special in that they both have strange little growths on their faces. The rescue’s vet has checked them out and thankfully they are totally benign and won’t affect their health so unless they get big enough to be in their way they don’t even warrant removing. These girls are all from the big Welsh rescue so it is likely to be a genetic problem caused by inbreeding although the growths do look a bit like a strange lump one of my old mice Charlie had which my vet thought was a wart. It was right on the corner of his eye and so couldn’t be removed but randomly after being there for the majority of his life one day it just dropped off! Hopefully it might be a similar scenario for my girls but in any event they are healthy and I think they’re gorgeous so it’s all good! And so without any further ado please meet Katy…
& Erica.
Amazingly, given how much of a stroppy knickers Jessica can be intros between my new babies and the freddy cage group have gone so smoothly that they are already living together. All in all I’m pretty pleased with things at the moment!
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20
February
2009
Many of you may remember my ‘dumped’ girls, I had a phone call from my vet at the beginning of January of last year asking if I had room for two girls. They had been found abandoned in a filthy carrier under a slide in a children’s play park and handed in to the vet. Well last Friday one of the girls, Dot (also known as little bug) passed away. She was only about 15 months old but neither she or her sister Poppy have aged very well really, probably down to the rotten start they had in life. In spite of the way they were treated as little ones both girls have always been so laid back and friendly and Dot will be sorely missed by myself as well Poppy and the rest of the group she lived with. Sweet dreams little girl.
Fortunately I also have some cheerier news in that the other three welsh neuter boys were neutered yesterday and it all went without a hitch. Whilst I was at the vets collecting them I got talking to a women who had a hammie with her and another with a gorgeous bun which made a nice change as normally I share the waiting room with dog and cat owners who give me strange looks lol! Anyway it turned out the bun lady also has a pet mouse so I pointed her in the direction of the site in the hope of being able to sort her out some company for her little lady. She seemed really nice so I hope I do hear from her. Also I have had a home offer through the site for one of the previously neutered boys which is fantastic so transport is currently being sorted to get him there. If they both work out I will be very pleased as given the sheer number of mice involved in the welsh rescue none of us had very high hopes of being able to home our fosters!
And finally I am going on a trip to Starlight rescue tomorrow and will be coming back with four new little girlies. Two of them I am adopting to intro to my freddy cage group (I had planned this even before I lost Dot) and the other two will be fosters who I’m taking in to be company for one of my foster boys. This will still leave me with four lone boys (not including the black boy who has a home already lined up) but is a step in the right direction at least.
I will post again to introduce the new girls in the next couple of days so watch this space!
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19
January
2009
…but I’ve decided to keep the little disabled foster boy permanently. Any of you that know me will have seen it coming lol but given his condition there is simply no way I could see him go off to anyone else so he is staying here with me. He is now named Percy.
With an extra permanent resident I decided to have a cage shuffle hopefully with the outcome of freeing up a larger home for Percy. I decided enough time had past to make it worth trying Digby and James together again (I’ve found it takes considerably longer for their agression to settle post neuter than it does for their fertility) and I’m very pleased to say that the two of them plus Jessica, Poppy, Dot and Maisy are now all together as one group in the freddy cage.
As they were previously two groups of three occupying a ruffy and a large duna this now gives me an empty savic ruffy which I plan to kit out for Pog leaving me his 2ft tank to adapt for my little Percy. Still with me lol? The hamster duna will now be occupied by one of the unfortunately all single foster boys. At the moment a couple of them are in cages far smaller than I like but since they all gradually decided to take chunks out of one another I wasn’t left with much choice, as it is the cages they are in were mainly loaned to me by a the lovely Sylvia against the worst case scenario of them all falling out. I’ve been rotating who is living where each clean out so that no one mousey is permanently in a teeny cage but now the duna is free the situation will be better.
And finally the three foster boys who have been neutered so far are now clear to go to new homes and will be going up on the rehoming board shortly so cross things for us that they find the lovely forever homes they deserve.
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2
January
2009
Hope everyone has had a nice Christmas and new year. It has been a busy but nice one here and I’m very pleased to say that the three foster boys have successfully had their neuters and everyone else is fit and well (long may it last!!). As the first post of 2009 I thought I’d share some pictures of some of the meeces (including my honorary mouse) ‘opening’ their Christmas pressies and also one of the newest additions to the meecey family! 
The mouseys tree Christmas morning
James
Dot
Jessica
Digby
Maisy
Pete
Pete & Timmy
Pog the not-a-mouse
And my newest two arrivals. 
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