Time flies…..

…or just disappears altogether it seems lol! Pretty sure someone nicked a month and legged it since my last blog entry - doesn’t seem 5 minutes since bonfire night yet somehow it’s Christmas eve tomorrow!! Anywho its been a bit up and down here, fortunately all my own meeces are fighting fit but sadly one of my little fosters, the poorly boy-bits one, passed away at the end of November. The worst thing was over the weeks I’d had him he’d healed so well and looked so much better that I’d started to think he was going to be fine so I took finding him gone in his eggbox quite hard. I guess at least he wasn’t in all that discomfort when he died but still.

The other foster boys are all fine but as I expected the group of six living together didn’t stay that way. They managed fine together for quite some time but in the last few weeks I’ve had to remove three one after the other as the ‘disagreements’ have escalated to real fighting with damage being done. I have all three booked in to be neutered on Monday 29th and am keeping things crossed the final three from that group stay together alright now, at least for the time being!

As for the last two fosters, the little lame boy is much the same leg-wise but still a total sweetheart and the little girl her Mum has called Limpet finally went to her forever home just this evening. So ‘just’ the 21 mice and a Pog here for Christmas this year then!

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Meet the boys.

Thought it was about time I put up some pics of the foster boys. They’ve been keeping me on my toes the past week but I have managed to get a couple of photos of the group of 6…..

The others are a little PEW and another like the second to last pic, will try and get photos of them soon.

The other two boys are doing OK, this is the healthier of the two with the terribly wonky tail…

….and this is the poor thing with the boy-bits problems (although there is definitely an improvement I’m pleased to say). Poor lamb has started being a bit nippy with my fingers when I’m trying to look at him, get meds down him etc which I’m taking to mean he is feeling a bit better in himself!

I’m pleased to say all my own lot are fine and settled into their new groups which is great. More updates soon!

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Here comes trouble!

My Welsh foster boys arrived last night. I have 2 poorly single boys (more about them in a second) and a very lively group of 6, a couple of whom tried to leap to freedom whilst being moved from carrier to cage! As my own mice have vacated the big freddy cage the group have gone straight in there and have been busily zooming around it since. They appear young, about 8 weeks by my guess, and so are still very much in their bouncy flea stage - and very fast with it they are too. I opened the cage door to take a picture of them playing and one little man instantly bolted out, up the outside of the cage and on to the roof! Fortunately he ran into the toilet roll tube I offered him so I got him straight back but these guys are going to be a handful to say the least. There is a fair bit of squeaking and chasing already but until they’ve had chance to settle it’s to be expected. I’ll have to watch the little black one though as he’s my Timmy all over again and seems to be causing most of the fuss!

My first little poorly man isn’t anything too serious, just a few bites around his bottom where he’s obviously been picked on, slightly weak back legs and the most crooked tail I’ve ever seen! He is the most amazingly calm little thing though, was quite happy to be picked up, held and fussed and is generally just an angel.

The other little single on the other hand is worrying me a lot and has a very intimate problem to say the least. He also looks to have been picked on as he has a bitten tail, a lump and bites round his bottom and very weak back legs but the worst thing is his that his little penis has obviously been bitten, is swollen and incredibly sore looking and he can’t retract it. My first concern was that he might not be weeing but I’ve seen the stains on the newspaper lining his cage (I had to swap to sheets of newspaper as he was struggling to move his back legs across the shredded cardboard) so that’s one thing. I’ve got him on anti-biotics for the possible infection, metacam for the inflammation and as pain relief and will be out buying vaseline in a minute to put on him. He seemed very stressed when he got here, poor thing but is much brighter this morning and has nommed his meds straight down. He is also eating like a trooper although again he was struggling with a food bowl so now he’s just got it on the floor. Please keep everything crossed for him.

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Phew!

What a week! Since my last post I have been busy helping with the organisation of this big rescue, collecting donations for the fund (cue me making a pic of Terry Wogan wearing mickey mouse ears and holding a collection bucket!) and reorganising the living arrangements of the occupants of my mouse room to make as much space as I can for fosters. This has involved trying my neutered foster boys back together (disaster), trying each of them with Pete (also a disaster) and then deciding to move Timmy out of the big cage to go back with Pete (who is his brother). Although they used to fight it was loooong ago before Tim was neutered and I’m pleased to say they’ve been together the whole week now without incident.

This then left me with the two other neutered boys and the group of girls so I tried them altogether having had success with this in the past. Still a definite no go unfortunately so I went out and bought another Savic ruffy today and split the big group into 2 smaller ones instead. I now have one boy with Jessica and Maisy and the other with Poppy, Dot and until she goes to her new home in December Limpet (the girly foster who arrived the same time as these boys). This way I have space to keep them permanently (not that they would find a home anyway with this big rescue going on) so they now have names - the black, tatty one is now Digby and the white one James.

So everyone who is already here is now sorted and settled, just in time for my fosters from this big Welsh rescue to arrive!

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All hands on deck!

Thursday evening I got a call from Emma at Furryfriends in Surrey about a hideous situation involving hundreds of mice living in appalling conditions in a house in Wales. A local rescue (Freshfields) had been contacted about taking them in but due to the sheer numbers involved there’s no way they could take them all so they appealed to other rescues for help. The biggest problem is that environmental health are also involved and if we can’t find places for these mice to go they will be destroyed so the clock is very much ticking!

Since this all came to light the number of mice has been estimated to be at around the 900 mark so we are appealing on just about every animal forum there is for anyone who can help, whether it be with transport, fostering, homing or even just spreading the word. I have also set up a fund to help with the vets care and things that these mice are going to need and within just a few hours I’m very pleased to say £43 has been collected which is certainly a good start.

This is a very urgent situation and even with all the people who have come forward so far we aren’t anywhere close to having places for all these mice to go so if you are reading this and thinking that you may be able to help please, please get in touch!

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Yet more spiny tunnels!

You may remember some time back a couple of posts about my spiny tunnel project where I was endeavouring to improve my spiny meeces cage set ups with underground tunnels for them to play in. Well since then I’ve been spending more and more time and effort on more and more elaborate set ups until today I somehow lost 4 (yes 4!) hours just cleaning out Sam and Molly! Of course I took piccies as it developed…

I do think it’s the best set up so far but the trouble is it’s become somewhat addictive trying to out do myself with every cage clean and with 3 spiny cages to design pretty soon I’m going to have to give up work or stop sleeping in order to find the time!

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I have a Pog!

As planned not-a-mouse 2nd and the ickle foster boy went to Starlight Trust rescue on Saturday when I went to collect the newest addition to my furry family, my ham Pog. The poor thing already has a whole host of silly nicknames (Sir Pogmous, Mr Poggle, The Pogalator and mister Pog-a-lot to name just a few! :oops:) and has won us all round with his funny little mannerisms. It is very easy to see why he’s so big, bless him as he’s like a little vacuum cleaner, in fact within seconds of being placed in his carrier to come home he’d pouched just about all the food I’d put in there for him! Still he really seems to love the disc style exercise wheel I bought him so there’s hope for him shifting some of the podge yet. Here is the little man in question.

Mouse wise however things aren’t so great, my lovely girl Honey went to the bridge over the weekend (meaning I’ve lost some 5 mice in just over 2 months :(), I’ve had a bout of mites in the main cage, although that seems under control now and I’ve also had to put Pippa on anti-biotics for her noisy chest. On the plus side though the 2 big foster boys were neutered on friday and are both absolutely fine and the foster girly not only looks as though she’s not pregnant but also has a new home lined up so it’s not all bad news thank goodness!

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Not-a-mouse the 2nd

Realised I forgot to tell you about my other little foster who arrived here Monday night! With Starlight Trust still being in quarantine I was asked if I could help them out with a small ham someone wanted to hand in. Apparently he was a unwanted present and has been living in one of those tiny Habitrail Ovo things since February, poor thing. He is only the second hamster I’ve ever had here and as you may remember the first (the feisty little girl who lived with lilac foster) became not-a-mouse so he is already being called not-a-mouse the 2nd lol! I’m informed by someone who knows about hams that he is a chinese but all I know is he is adorable! Just look at this little face….

He will be going to Starlight at the weekend (along with the little boy foster) which is when I shall finally be collecting my very own ham. I had arranged to adopt him before the rescue went into quarantine as he’d been looking for a home for so long so now I can hardly wait to get him here! The little man in question is a very overweight dwarf ham for whom I’ve chosen the name Pog. Well it’s better than not-a-mouse the 3rd I guess!

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Urgh!

Just found Joe dead! He was laying in his fuzzbutt house with Pippa and looked asleep so I didn’t realise right away. His little body is still soft so it can’t have happened long ago….can’t believe it to be honest as he wasn’t even a year old, having such a bad run at the moment.

Oh and introducing the little foster boy to Pete didn’t work out at all. Pete was fine but little one took one look at him and decided he was having none of it so that is that idea out of the window.

Hoping for things to take a turn for the better, feeling quite miserable right now to be honest!

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About time too!

Sorry everyone about the complete lack of updates for so long only I’ve had a rather horrid summer on a personal level which has also meant I’ve been incredibly busy both during and since and blog entries were just one of the things that fell to the wayside. However I’m getting back on top of things now and shall do my best to go AWOL on you again!

First I’ve had several deaths since my last post. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that despite rallying a bit I lost Bobble not long after writing about him being ill. We spent a lot of time together before he died and he took to sleeping snuggled on my chest or sitting there eating whatever treat I gave him. I don’t know if it was just warm or he found my heart beat soothing somehow but he’d settle there for hours and I’m glad I had that time with him. What I found harder though was finding Jake (who had been living with Bobs after falling out big style with Ollie and Pete) dead just a few days later. No warning, no signs of what had killed him just gone one morning. Worse still just the Thursday before last, so several weeks later, exactly the same thing happened with Ollie. He and Pete were living together fine still and again no signs of anything wrong. Given he and Jake hadn’t been living together it makes me think there is probably a genetic problem with their hearts of something rather than it being something contagious as I might otherwise have assumed. I can’t pretend I’m not suddenly scared for Timmy and Pete as they were all brothers but touch wood they are both fighting fit. I can’t quite believe only two of my five lovely boys are still with me though and miss Bobble, Jake and Ollie who all died far too young.

This of course means that for the last week and a bit poor Pete has been living alone whilst I’ve been trying to decide what to do for the best. Today however I’m hoping an answer might have appeared as I’ve just been and collected four new foster mice from Emma of Furryfriends rescue one of whom is a teeny lone boy. Given he should be young enough not to be a threat and that Petey hasn’t proven to be aggressive I shall be trying them together so please keep whatever you can crossed for them!

The other fosters are a pair of aggressive boys who badly need neutering and the sister of the little man from above. Unfortunately she and her brother had been living together until rescued and she is already looking slightly pregnant despite being only teeny herself. My main concern at the moment is to give her peace and quiet and a chance to nest before her bubs come along, poor love so all in all I predict a busy time coming up here mouse wise in the near future!

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