29
July
2008
Well I’ve spent the past couple of weeks slowly trying to introduce Sam the spiny to my three girls. For anyone that doesn’t know spinies aren’t like fancy mice at all and very few people have had any luck introducing them. Myself I’ve had mixed success, Amelia and Heidi to Molly and Matilda when they were all still young went without a hitch but then trying to add Grace in after we lost her friend Baby and Heidi from the girl group ended pretty grimly. However Hoggle to Grace was again completely straight forward so I figured I had a reasonable chance of another neutered boy to girls.
I started off introducing them in a carrier. At this stage everyone sniffed each other over and then all went to sleep snuggled up together! With fancy mice of course this would be fantastic but unfortunately it proved not to be much of an indicator at all in this case. After a completely calm day together in the carrier I moved them all into a bare duna that none of them had ever been in before. Almost immediately Amelia starting chasing Sam about and got worked up enough for me to remove her for a bit. Matilda then took over. 
After removing Tilly though Sam settled down with Molly and went to sleep so that was how we spent our first night.
Over the next week or so things followed that pattern, all four spent their evenings together, albeit it with some chasing, but I removed Amelia and Tilly over night. The chasing seemed to lessen as the days went on and after a week I felt happy enough to leave them together overnight. The next morning I found the girls sleeping in one corner and Sam on his own in another but everyone looked fine so I thought we were making progress. It was three days after that, when I hadn’t seen any chasing for some time and everything appeared settled that I found bite marks on Sam for the first time and realised it just wasn’t going to work. 
My original plan was to kit out my empty savic freddy cage for the four of them so lucky Sam and Molly now have all that space for just the two of them. They are spending all their time together, sharing a bed and Sammy has finally come out of his shell and has been bouncing around gummi bear style like happy spinys do lol! Bless him he had me quite worried when he was alone and looking back was obviously not happy during the intro stage so I’m sure now that I’ve made the right decision, even if it is a bit of shame that Molly is no longer with the other girls. Still no one is alone and everyone is happy and healthy which is the main thing. 
This does leave me looking for a new cage for Amelia and Tilly though as the 3ft tank the girls used to occupy now belongs to Hoggle and Grace who had been waiting to move out of my smaller tank for far too long, love em. They are really enjoying the extra space so if I can pick up another 2nd hand freddy anywhere I shall have three pairs of thoroughly spoilt spinies!!!
In other news the long stay lodgers have returned, well for a week anyway. Their owner is away on holiday so I get to fuss over my little friends Mercury, Rapid and Delta as well as the newer members to the girly group, Panama, Morocco and Mongolia. 
On a less positive note though my little runty boy Bobble is unwell with horribly noisy breathing. He’s on a good antibiotic and I have him on his own for a bit to try and feed him up. The trouble is he has always been a teeny little thing and is pretty frail looking when he’s healthy so I am very worried about him, I just don’t know if he has the strength to cope with being ill. He is eating well and is an active little scrap but tbh I think he’s basically been living on borrowed time his whole life. Wish us luck.
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16
July
2008
In the general busy-ness that this time of year brings I have completely forgotten to tell you about something that happened the weekend before last! On Sunday the 6th four of the foster girls went off together to their new home, just a week after arriving here! I’ve since heard that they are fine and have settled happily with the lone girly their new owner wanted friends for so I’m really chuffed.
This just left two little ladies with me and as my intros of Joe to Timmy and co were still ongoing I decided to try them and see how they got on with my lot. The result was the new girls taking well to Pippa and the boys in particular so, you’ve guessed it, they’re staying lol! I’ve named them Honey (the argente from the video) and Jessica (the dove tan) and am loving having a big group of my own again.
I think I must have imagined having foster mice because I certainly can’t see any here! 
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14
July
2008
Last week I received the sad news that Teak has passed away. He had been unwell and the vet suspected kidney failure but he was on antibiotics in case it was an infection. We all had our fingers crossed but unfortunately he took a turn for the worse last Monday and it became obvious he wasn’t going to recover. He slipped away shortly afterwards.
Teak had lived here with me from April 2007 (he featured in my 4th ever blog entry) until very recently, first as a foster mouse and then as a long stay lodger after he was adopted by the friend who’s mice I was looking after. He was a definite personality, a gorgeous, inquisitive and independent little man who always let you know when he wasn’t in the mood for humans lol! He loved living with his ladies and I’m so pleased that I made the decision to have him neutered back in October last year after the failed attempts at having him live with lilac foster and then Elliott.
I’m sad that he’s gone but at 18 months old and healthy right up until the end he had a good life and I’m happy that he made it to his forever home even if it was only for a short time. Sleep tight lovely boy. x
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3
July
2008
Thought you might like to see the silly vid I made of the foster ladies. Click the image to view it.
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1
July
2008
I collected no fewer than seven new mice on Saturday morning, one of which was Pippa’s hubby as planned and the other six new foster meeces. They are all girlies and very lovely, so friendly and tame. The only reason I’ve got them is because their previous owner had a change of circumstance in her living arrangements and sadly had to rehome all her pets. I would like to be able to keep them but unfortunately with my numbers as they are it wouldn’t really be practical longer term so they will be looking for forever homes. They were living as a two and a four but have introed well and are now occupying my spare freddy cage together.
My new little man is also in the process of intros. I’ve named him Joe and he’s lovely. Pippa had obviously missed him as the second they clapped eyes on each other she ran over and started washing his ears, I could almost hear her tutting and asking him where he’d got to! 
So all in all things are pretty busy here at the moment but everything seems to be going well. Sam is doing great, healing beautifully, Maisy is growing nicely and Timmy has definitely settled now after pining a bit when Emily died. Long may it last!
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25
June
2008
After some deliberation and a discussion with his former foster Mum I decided to have Sam the spiny neutered to give him a chance of living with my three girls. He went in for the operation on Monday and thankfully all went well. He did however decide he was NOT having stitches in and in the time between coming round and me collecting him he’d removed them and not one but two lots of surgical glue!!! The very idea made me feel ever-so-slightly queasy I can tell you but after the vet decided there was no point reglueing him yet again and that he would be best left to heal naturally he’s left his wounds alone completely and has spent the last two evenings running in his wheel as per normal. Having just got in from his post op check up this afternoon everyone concerned is happy that the op sites are clean and dry and will close up perfectly on their own so it’s not a problem but still, silly Sammy boy!
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21
June
2008
Glad to report I have some good news at last, little Maisy who was on baby watch has turned out not to be pregnant!! Having spent the last couple of weeks watching her like a hawk and weighing her regularly I had the feeling she wasn’t but didn’t want to tempt fate by saying so but now we’re past the last day she could have given birth I very happy to share the news! Both her and Pippa are doing really well and are such friendly little girls so having allowed a couple of extra days just to be on the safe side I introduced them to the group in the big cage yesterday. Maisy was a bit wary (and quite vocal!) of her new friends but by last night the five of them were happily running around exploring the new set up together. All is peaceful this morning too.
This also means I can now arrange to collect Pippa’s ‘husband’ too so things are a lot more positive here than they have been of late!
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10
June
2008
I made the difficult decision to have my lovely Emily put to sleep. Whilst she was still active and seemingly happy in herself the lump had become so big it was almost half the size of her body, had rendered one of her back legs useless and was beginning to develop sores where it dragged on the floor on the underside. I really couldn’t leave it any longer so I took her on her last journey.
As sad as I am to lose yet another mouse in such a short space of time Emily had a good long life and hadn’t had any real health problems until quite recently. She was always a bit of a wild girl and her ‘livewire’ personality and zest for life had me hooked within a couple of hours of her coming here. She could be a moody madam when it suited her (like when I first tried introducing her to Poppy and Dot!) but was also so sweet and gentle at times. I feel privileged to have been owned by her (she wasn’t the sort of mouse to be owned lol) and will miss her terribly, as will her cagemates who seem a bit lost without her bossing them all around.
Emily my darling I hope you know that I made the decision out of love. Thank you for being you. x
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7
June
2008
Barely having had to time to get over Indium and Ripple’s sad deaths Tantalum then became ill. He’d had a tendency towards a bit of a noisy chest at various times through his life so when his breathing became noisy again a couple of weeks back I dutifully started him on baytril and echinacea expecting it to clear up. After about 5 days nothing had changed however so I booked him an appointment with the vet which was for the Saturday morning. Only I ended up rushing him down there as an emergency case on the Friday evening. His breathing had become heavily laboured all of a sudden and he really didn’t seem well. The vet gave him an injection of a diuretic in case he had fluid on his lungs and prescribed a different antibiotic and an anti inflammatory and on the way home he already seemed a bit brighter. By this point he wasn’t drinking however so as well as his meds I syringed honey water into him to keep him hydrated as well as providing him with a heat mat to keep him warm. He was much more lively after all this and had a pretty good night. The next lot of meds went down fine in the morning and he was interested in the various foods I tried to tempt him with but sadly during the next afternoon he passed away.
So Wednesday just gone when their owner came to pick up the long stay fosters for the final time (they will be able to go to university with her next year) only 4 of them remained which I found hard given everyone was doing well just a few weeks back. It seems to be the way it goes sometimes but it never gets any easier to deal with.
However fortunately its not all doom and gloom here as I’ve also welcomed two new little girls to my mousey family. They’ve come from starlight trust rescue and are a mum and daughter (a male/female pair and their babies were handed into rescue). Mum I’ve named Pippa and the little one is Maisy and she’s on baby watch as unfortunately she accidentally came in contact with young males before coming here. Everyone’s keeping their fingers crossed that she isn’t pregnant, bless her.
I will also homing the original daddy who will be reunited with Pippa after being neutered at the rescue. Apparently they were quite devoted to each other so it will be lovely for them to be able to live together again. Daddy will get a name once he’s here which will be in a couple of weeks once I know whether Maisy is pregnant or not. I will of course keep you updated!
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30
May
2008
Sadly in the last week we’ve had not one but two unexpected deaths here. Firstly Indium passed away and then a couple of days later Ripple, both unexpectedly and both without warning.
I don’t know which bot is the most upsetting, that both meeces were still only relatively young or that they (as long stay lodgers) would have been going home forever next week.
Sweet dreams little angels, you will both be sorely missed.
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| Indium |
Ripple |
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