18
May
2008
Things are finally starting to settle down here and although there are still plenty of cardboard boxes kicking about the house is functional now and the meeces have more interesting cage setups. The extension where the mice now live is far from organised but it is so nice to have all the mousie stuff in one place and to hand when I need it, no more hunting through cupboards or under the stairs when I need something!! 
Also as we passed the 4 week mark Timmy is now introed and living happily with my three girly mice. Given that the long stay lodgers will be going home *sob* in few weeks I decided to divide my own girls and the lodgers into separate groups so Tim and Teak have their own little group of girls. Unfortunately old girl Emily has now developed a tumour under her back leg but given her age (around 2 I believe) and the other health problems she’s had recently I am not going to have it removed and will leave her be to enjoy what ever time she has left whilst she seems happy and comfortable. Its upsetting under any circumstances but when a mouse has had a long healthy life, as Emily has I try to be a little philosophical about it, after all if she lives long enough for the lump to cause her problems she’d have done pretty well, bless her.
In happier news though I have a new addition to my mousie family in the shape of Sam the spiny boy. I fell in love with him having seen his picture when he arrived in rescue in a bad way some time ago. As it happened the person looking after him is the same person who took in my rat Meg and as when I went on a day trip to visit her yesterday Sam still hadn’t found a home her came back with me. He’s a lovely little chappy and very friendly despite everything he’s been through and I’m very happy to be able to offer him a forever home. 
Posted: News 2 Comments », Subscribe
11
May
2008
Well we’re here! The last week has gone by in a bit of a blur but move day went as smoothly as it could of really. I was still moving mice into carriers and emptying cages when the removal team arrived at just after 8am which prompted an interesting conversation. It turned out one of the guys used to have pet rats and was much taken with the mice especially the spinies, even if he did think they were hamsters initially! It was quite sweet actually as every time he walked past he spoke or waggled his fingers at them which wasn’t quite the reaction I was expecting!
Meeces ready and waiting to go.
(From left to right) Dark blue carrier: Ollie, Petey, Bobble & Jake. Light blue carrier: Hoggle & Grace. Back carrier: Timmy. Front carrier: Mercury, Induim & Tantalum. Black carrier: Molly, Matilda & Amelia. Mickey Max cage: Emily, Poppy, Dot, Delta, Rapid, Ripple & Teak.
On our way
Fortunately we didn’t have far to go and with the children being at school I was able to strap the mice in along the back seat. The two smaller ones went in the footwells. It was a scorching hot day but with the air conditioning on everyone was fine which is more than could be said for the poor removal men who sweltered in the van!
First night
The priority once we arrived was just to get everyone back into their cages, even if they were a bit thrown together!
And so here we are. The house is coming together slowly and I’m loving having a proper place to keep the mice and their things all together. I’m looking forward to getting it a bit more organised.
Posted: News 2 Comments », Subscribe
5
May
2008
….and all through the house,
everyone was about ready,
even the mous…er mice! 
Well somehow we made it. After much sorting and organising the pile of mouse stuff from the previous blog entry now looks like this
and the whole house is packed, everyone who needs to be informed has been informed and mousey carriers are set up and waiting by cages for action first thing. The removal team are turning up for 8.30 so I will be up at the crack of dawn to get the kids ready for school, do the last bits that can’t be done until the morning and to move all the meeces into their allocated carriers so I can empty and clean the cages. We’ll see you again once we’re in the new place, wish us luck!
Posted: News 4 Comments », Subscribe
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 », Subscribe
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 », Subscribe
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 », Subscribe
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 , Subscribe
12
March
2008
Further to yesterdays post I thought I’d share some piccies of the girls enjoying their new set up.
And the following one of Tilly (Matilda) just cos it’s gorgeous.
Posted: News 3 Comments », Subscribe
11
March
2008
Well not so much spiny tunnels as tunnels for spinys! Basically I had an idea some time ago about building some sort of tunnel system for the spiny mice out of all the extra-long cardboard tubes I had left over from rolls of wrapping paper at Christmas. Given how much they like running through the ones they normally get and that their favourite sleeping place is usually an underground (ie buried in the litter) cardboard box I wanted to create a big underground system for them. So spurred on by a forum member who’d had a similar idea (great minds think alike lol!) this is what the spiny tank now looks like.
Firstly I made one tunnel set out of plastic tubes and put it at one end of the empty tank.
Then I constructed what I could out of the cardboard tubes and put it at the other end.
In the middle went the ‘bunker’ with an entrance tube.
Then I covered the whole lot with litter…
….leaving only the entrance/exit tubes above ground.
Once that was done I added the rest of the toys as per normal.
I’m pleased to say that Molly, Matilda and Amelia absolutely LOVE it! They’ve been going totally loopy racing round all their ’secret’ tunnels and exploring so although under no illusions that the cardboard bit will stay intact for long it was totally worth the time and effort. Will have to try something similar with Hoggle and Grace now!
Posted: News 2 Comments », Subscribe
4
March
2008
Thought it was about time for an update on how everyone is doing.
Well unfortunately one of the new foster boys has had to be separated from the group already, he got very aggressive with all the other four and won’t even play nicely with them on neutral ground now so he’s living alone for the moment. Health wise he is great though, bright, active and has a super shiny coat so I’m really happy with him (other than his behaviour lol!).
Of the other four from that group three are now looking pretty good and have settled well but the littlest one is giving me cause for concern. He’s several grams lighter than the smallest of the others, is a bit sneezy and also has a bit of a sticky eye, bless him. Given his age I don’t want to rush in with antibiotics but we will have to see if things don’t improve. He’s really good at letting me wash his eye though and is so sweet, he spent quite a bit of last night snuggled down the front of my top - guess its nice and warm down there!
As for everyone else we seem to be doing alright at the moment. Poppy and Dot have grown so much they are almost the size of the other girls now and are getting on great with the group. Hard to believe I had problems introducing them all now I often find all seven in one bed together! Indium’s ears are distinctly less red too so I’m only bathing them every other day now, which is good as ear problems have a tendency to escalate. Hope I haven’t spoken to soon on that front!!
But generally things are pretty good here for the moment.
Posted: News , Subscribe
