McBlog

Well, today the last of our pet mice died – we’ve had quite a few in the years since our first pair arrived (just over 3 years, actually). Now the last of them has died and we’ll be cleaning out Stately Mouse Manor, packing it away and giving it to the school next year (if they want it).

We decided a while back that we’d wind it up when the last of this batch died. The plan is to wait until some time next year and then get a pair of rats – females, once again. This time we’ll keep them in a bird-cage type of thing so they’re vertical, rather than horizontal like the mega-mouse-house was. It’s about time we got our kitchen table back :)

We lost another mouse yesterday – little Frood was about a year old and we found her dead in the nest. Guess she had an embolism or something. Really thought Kissy would be the next to go (she’s about 3 years old) but it was Frood.

We’d picked up Lursa and B’Etor a few months back (whoops – forgot to blog that bit of incredible news) so we had four mice left (Kissy, Hoopy, Lursa & B’etor). With Hoopy losing weight and coughing often, we figure she’s likely to be next, so, off to get a few more mice.

Off to Up Market Pets and into the mouse zone. Kitt picked up a Siamese Manx mouse (siamese like points on the nose & ears, no tail, white, pink eyes – wierd man, just wierd!) that she’s calling Bella. Nykolai got a new white & black mouse with face markings almost like a badger that he’s calling Mini-Me.

Integration is progressing slowly with a number of “interesting” moments between them all. Perhaps it’s all true then, they *are* doing experiements on man…

For a while there, we thought the two new mice we picked up (Hoopy & Frood) were exhibiting the same behaviour as the existing pair (Kissy & Licky) – eg: one gets real fat and bossy while the other stays lean and cute. No such luck. While Hoopy is getting fat like Little Licky Lard Arse, Frood is turning into a neurotic psycho mouse from hell – she’s racing around the place, jumping about like a startled cat and generally tearing everything apart. If you hold her next to Hoopy, you’d swear that Frood was almost a generation younger.

We’re starting to wonder if she has a secret stash of white powder somewhere ‘cos she’s hyper, jumpy, nervous and rather thin compared to the other three.

We picked up some more mice on Sunday as Nykolai’s current pair (Kissy and Licky) are already about one & a half years old. Kitt got naming rights over these two and so they’re called Hoopy and Frood (most of you should get the reference :)

Will load photos of the new arrivals shortly…