And Teak makes seven!

Teak is now happily settled in the big cage! The intros were pretty uneventful, he and Elliott are a bit wary of each other as I expected and the first day that he actually moved in (as opposed to them all just playing together outside the cage) he seemed a little overwhelmed but fortunately it didn’t last long.

When they first met the girls - well mainly Emily and Rapid lol - didn’t waste much time pining Teak down for a good groom which must have felt heavenly because his little face was a picture, bless him. I always imagine it must be like someone giving you a big hug after you’ve been in solitary confinement for months and every time I witness it just reinforces why I rate company of their own kind sooo important to a mouse - certainly makes the worry and cost of neutering totally worthwhile.

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Long time, no blog!

Somehow it seems a month has slipped by without me making a diary entry, not quite sure how that happened! There has been good and bad news during that time, both my old girl Ebony and one of the long stay girls, Eddy, have crossed over to the rainbow bridge. Ebony went peacefully in her sleep whilst poor Eddy, who wasn’t even very old was found feeling cold and barely moving in the hammock following a suspected stroke and sadly died shortly afterwards. Sleep tight lovely girls.

Getting to the good news the former dutch foster, now named Teak had his neuter without any problems and is 3 weeks into his waiting time which means he can finally meet his new cage mates at the end of this week. I’ll keep you up to date on how that goes!

Also talking of former fosters Lilac and his buddy Not-a-mouse have now gone off to their new home, albeit with a short stop over on the way up. I had mixed feelings saying goodbye to them as whilst I’m over the moon to see them finally on their way to their forever home I had developed a soft spot for both of them and am missing their daft antics. Their cage will soon be filled again though as a new lot of foster mice will be arriving in the next week or so, watch this space.

Ebony	Eddy	Lilac foster & Not-a-mouse

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Dutch foster has a Mummy!

And very soon a name too lol! After my last blog the owner of the long stay boarders suggested I try dutch foster with her three super placid and friendly boys. Despite my best efforts it was unfortunately a non starter (the little man will definitely be going in for a neuter now) but already attached to the idea of keeping him my friend has decided that he can move in with her girls after his op so at long last he has a forever home. And of course I get to have him here during term time!

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The Dutch foster puzzle

Hmmmn! Well things haven’t gone quite as hoped with my two foster boys unfortunately. I tried to introduce them several times at various lengths of time after Elliott’s neuter but things didn’t go well. The last time, although Elliott has calmed right down, Dutch foster was having none of it and went fair barmy at him so I decided to call it a day. Elliott is now residing with the 7 girls in the big cage and is loving it, they took to him instantly so it looks like he might well be staying now lol!

But this leaves me with a bit of a puzzle over what to do with Dutch. With him and Lilac all the aggression was from Lilac, he was totally submissive so I didn’t consider neutering him. With Felix he was dominant as is to be expected but they lived together beautifully so again no need to consider neutering. Now with Elliott he was totally over the top, bite-first-ask-questions-later aggressive which I wasn’t expecting. The thing is he’s been here a long time now and really deserves somewhere to settle so I need to make a decision one way or another with regards to company for him. Do I try to find him a younger, non threatening boy to see if I can recreate the Felix situation or have him neutered after all so he can be homed sooner rather than later and possibly to someone with girls? Gonna need to stew over this one for a bit methinks!

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A nice surprise!

Just had an interesting conversation with the mother of one of my youngest daughters friends! She came to pick her little girl up (she’d been here after school for tea) and was interested in what all my cages contained. Turns out she’s a vet nurse - I’ve been nattering to the women at the school gates for years but had no idea lol - and so we started chatting about operations on mice and rescuing and all sorts! She loved my sets ups and when I mentioned having males neutered she said how fantastic that was which makes quite a change from the sort of reaction I normally get from people that’s for sure!!

Its really strange because rightly or wrongly I’m always concerned over how parents in particular will react to the pets I have, the general public as a whole aren’t keen on rodents, least of all rats and mice, and I’d hate it to get in the way of any of my daughters friendships. So to get such a positive, interested reaction and find out that I know a vet nurse was a very nice surprise indeed!

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Lilac foster and Not-a-mouse.

It was a early start here this morning as I was a meeting point for todays big transport run and therefore I had a living room full of people and carriers of rodents by 8.30am! As planned the seven short stay boys went off on their way to their new home in Leeds and I gained my unusual little foster pair in the form of Lilac and his new friend the grumpy hammie. The little lady lives up to her name that’s for sure and made a most unimpressed screechy type noise as I moved the tube she was in from the travel carrier to the cage, bless her. Fortunately I knew what to expect and didn’t try to touch her so I’m pleased to say that I still have all my fingers!

Anyway she might not be keen on humans but she loves Lilac foster to bits and the two of them were soon running around and checking out their new cage together. They are quite the odd little couple that’s for sure but they seem very happy and its far better than them both spending their lives alone. For some reason I keep imagining them talking to each other in the same language but with strong, different accents - yes I know I need help!

As I mentioned before we’ve not had a hamster here before and since they arrived we all seem to be referring to her as Not-a-mouse so I think this is likely to be her name during her stay here, poor thing! I hope to get some photos of her and the lovely lilac foster later this evening.

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Mouse hotel!

Well it feels like it at the moment anyway! As well as my own mice, the 2 foster meeces and the 8 boys mentioned in my last blog entry I now also have 7 long stay boarders who will be spending term times with me whilst their owner is away at university. They are 3 adorable little boys named Mercury, Tantalum and Indium and 4 very sweet (although slightly scatty lol) girls called Eddy, Delta, Ripple and Rapid. They are all lovely little things who I’m very happy to have here - as usual piccies of them all will follow in due course!

For now though I have finally got the photos I promised of my 8 little short stay boarders so here they are…

Two of them (the argente and the choc & white) are going to be visiting the vet tomorrow so I will update further then.

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More sad news and a happier event

Well things went from bad to worse last week when I discovered my old girl Whisper dragging both her back legs on Friday evening. When I took her to the vet on Saturday she discovered an inoperable tumour in her spine. There was nothing that could be done to give her the use of her legs back so I had my little angel put to sleep whilst we were there. Two in just a few days.

Fortunately it isn’t all doom and gloom though as yesterday 8 little boys came to stay with me. They’ll be here for a couple of weeks until a transport run takes them up to their new home in Leeds, so more like short term boarders than fosters. Pictures to follow!

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Feeling num.

Having a horrid time here. Went to give Felix and dutch-foster their dinner last night and found Felix laying on his side on the floor. He wasn’t moving at all and his eyes looked glazed over so I instantly thought he was dead, only as I picked the cage up his tail moved. He felt almost cold to the touch so I sat with him in my cupped hands for a while totally expecting him to slip away there and then. Instead he started to warm up and blinked a few times after which his eyes lost the horrible glazed over look and it soon became obvious that he’d had a stroke and couldn’t move.

Basically to cut a long story short I spent last night propped up in bed with my poorly boy alternating between laying on my chest to keep warm and in a fleece pouch in an open hospital tank next to me. He’d drunk a fair bit of water when I offered it to him soon after finding him and seemed to pick up a little bit after that so I made up a jug of lactol (puppy milk) and kept offering it to him from a syringe throughout the night. At one point he tried to sit himself up and started to wash his nose with one paw but his balance failed him so I had to hold him up. What is etched in my memory though is when I stirred from a doze at about 4am, picked him up from the tank and he started bruxing at me. He took a good amount of the milk, had a scratch, had a wash and then sat and nodded off in my hand as I rubbed behind his ears. After that I hoped desperately that he’d get some more movement back and that perhaps with some steriods he might be OK but unfortunately it wasn’t to be and by this morning I knew I had to make the heartbreaking decision to have him put to sleep. I’ll admit that several times I picked up the phone to make the appointment with the vet and put it back down again - he was sleeping quite comfortably at the time and having battled all night to keep him alive the guilt was horrible but with it having been 12 hrs since I’d first found him by this point I knew he wasn’t going to recover. So we made that last journey together.

As usual I’m sat here now faced with the prospect of burying a much loved mouse thinking that I can’t do this anymore. There are times when all little ones I’ve lost over the years and all the circumstances I lost them in just become overwhelming. Because all my mice are rescues and therefore from unknown and less than ideal backgrounds I think its fair to say that I deal with more illnesses and premature deaths than the average mouse owner and I wouldn’t have it any other way but on days like today it can weigh quite heavily. Fortunately I know the feeling will pass and I’ll start to remember all the positive things as well but right now I need to go say goodbye to my little fighter.

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Sad times

Well unfortunately things have not been good here since my last blog entry. On Monday I found Benji dead in his bed and today little Fanulla aka Lucy. Both have upset me very much as I hate loosing young mice, Benji died on the 1st anniversary of him coming here and was only 14-15 months old and Fanulla wasn’t even a year old by my estimation and has only been with me since April. Both looked quite peaceful but they were too young to go and I just hope desperately that it is a horrid coincidence and that their deaths aren’t connected in anyway. I can’t see any reason they should be but I shall be keeping a very close eye on the remaining 4 in that cage none the less, although thankfully with the exception of my now elderly Whisper (around 18 months) everyone else looks in perfect health.

Rest in peace my two sweet little meeces, I shall miss you both.

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