30
April
2008
Well big changes are afoot here as we’ve finally exchanged contracts on our house sale and purchase!! *does a little dance* We’re moving next week so its all systems go and of course what is more important to get packed up ready than the mousies stuff! 
However upon collecting it all in one place ready I realised what a task that was going to be……
This of course doesn’t include any of the things actually in use or the two big bales of cardboard bedding!
Looks a bit like a game of ‘where’s wally’ - maybe I should set you all a list of things to find in the picture! 
Posted: News 2 Comments »
23
April
2008
Hoggle the spiny mouse outsmarted me yesterday! He occasionally gets a bit of a run round the living room but is such a nutter it can take a considerable length of time to shepherd him back home again lol. Yesterday I cleaned out the spiny tanks but only had half an hour until I needed to pick my daughters up from school so decided to put them straight back (they spend clean out time in a carrier). Hoggle however had other ideas!
With the tank ready and waiting I opened the carrier to move Hoggle and Grace back. Gracie let me pick her up and move her without any problems but as I turned back round to get Hogs he leapt out of the carrier onto the floor and instantly darted behind the sofa! What followed next was me trying to coax, catch or otherwise persuade one very excited and bouncy spiny mouse that it wasn’t play time during which I somehow got a chomped finger and moved most of my living room furniture! With about 2 mins to spare before I had to leave for the school run he finally ran into one of the many tubes and boxes I’d put around the room and I was able to put him in the tank. The thing is now he keeps giving me this very knowing look and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find him in his wooden house leaning over a map with a glass cutter in one paw plotting his escape!
In other news some of you won’t be at all surprised to learn, given my last post, that I decided to offer a permanent home to my 5 foster boys. 
I have therefore spent the last couple of days deciding on suitable names for them all and am pleased to properly introduce Timmy (the little black recently neutered one), Bobble (runty boy), Ollie (the splodgy faced one) and Jake (who has the white stripe down his nose). This does however leave little twoface boy currently nameless and I can’t find anything that suits him. I keep thinking it should be a ‘p’ name but have already dismissed Pickle, Patch and Percy as they just don’t seem quite right. This his photo again…
If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to leave them in a comment. 
Posted: News 6 Comments »
17
April
2008
Firstly I have some good news, little black foster mouse was successfully neutered yesterday. Given what happened with Paradox I was so nervous I felt physically sick until I knew he was round after the surgery, it didn’t matter that I was sure logically it was the best thing for him or that all those other neuters have gone without a hitch my stomach was in knots! I am so very very relieved that he’s OK and won’t have to live alone and even more so that the other four foster boys are still getting on fine!
However that is not the only difficult thing I had to deal with yesterday. I know I don’t normally talk about the ratties in my posts here because I wanted to keep it my mouse diary but today I’m going to have to make an exception. When I went to collect mousie from the vet yesterday afternoon I also took my darling rat Tess to be PTS. 
She has been suffering from HLD (hind leg degeneration) for some time now but up until this last couple of days and with medication she has coped well. It has however been very hard watching her decline and I’ve known that sooner or later I was going to have to make this decision. When Tuesday night she had deteriorated again I knew deep down it was time, very upsetting but as I’ve said not unexpected.
This did however leave with me with a problem in the shape of Meg, Tess’s only remaining cage mate. As I’m sure many of you know rats don’t do well on their own and Meg in particular most definitely wouldn’t. She loves other rats to bits but has always been nervy with people, when we first got her in October 2005 she wouldn’t come out of bed unless all the lights were off, screamed if you tried to touch her and was generally terrified of everything. It took a lot of time and patience to get her to trust me and even now she isn’t one for cuddles and fusses.
It was with all this in mind that I made arrangements when Tess first got ill for Meg to go and live with some other rats when Tess passed away. There was only one rat owning person I could think of that I trusted enough to leave my gorgeous girl with so I was delighted and not a little relieved when she agreed to take her. Still it was with a very heavy heart that after the stresses of mousies op and losing Tess I travelled the hour long journey to take Meg to her new home last night. I figured it was better for her to meet her new friends as soon as possible after Tess ‘disappearing’ and given the intros apparently went without a hitch, meaning Meg didn’t have to spend more than a few hours alone I’m glad I did. However the down side for me is having gone from my last two rats to none in the space of a day. My living room has a empty cage containing ratty debris and my heart is sore. I’m very glad to have the mice to fuss over today. 
Posted: News 2 Comments »
4
April
2008
Sorry it’s been so long since the last update, I’ve been so busy the last few weeks that I don’t know where the time has gone!
Firstly after the success of the spiny girls’ new set up I made the decision to move Hoggle and Grace out of their cage. Unfortunately the only other tank I had is a 2ft so not big enough for them to live in permanently but I created a mini version of the big tank set up for now and they are loving it. It’s also solved Hoggle’s bar chewing issues which were getting worse so has proved a good decision.
This freed up a ruffy cage which I promptly moved the group of 4 foster boys into to give them more space (they were previously in the large hamster duna). There have been a few squabbles but thus far not a mark on any of them which is fab. All but the little runty one are now gorgeous, shiny, healthy boys as is the separate black one. Runty has put on a bit more weight but is still visibly smaller than the others. He’s so friendly though and loves a cuddle, bless him!
Sadly the rest of the news isn’t as good as we seem to have been plagued by lots of niggley little health problems recently. Several of the girls have been affected by ear mites, both Poppy and Dot have rattly chests, Emily has what we believe is an allergy, Indium’s bad ear is still bothering him and Teak has developed a hernia. Combine this with the fact my remaining two - now very eldery - rats have several problems between them and suddenly my house feels like an animal hospital! Walking around earlier I realised there is medical paraphernalia in just about every room downstairs including syringes, metacam and panomec on the mantel piece, senior aid, bio-plus and e-kid-nacea on top of the fridge, baytril, blackcurrant and baby wipes on the bookcase and pevidene with cotton buds and surgical gloves by the kitchen sink!! The vets number is on speed dial and I’m even beginning to learn some of the individual vets rotas lol! Has been a bit stressful to be honest but I think we’re about on top of things now…..hopefully *touches wood quickly*
Posted: News
