Houdini

Over time I've grown to know the differences in our little meece's personalities. Solly is curious & likes adventure. Stew hangs back, and tends to do more of the food storage. Solly leads, Stew follows.

One night, before we were going to spend a full day out of town, Solly ran up & over my arm, and out of the cage as I was giving them food. I grabbed at him but to my horror he fell off the counter and vanished. Over the next few hours we emptied the room, trying to find him. If he got upstairs it would be the end. Worse, the room didn't have a door, so we couldn't lock him in. Three times we spotted him but weren't fast enough to catch him. Then he appeared on top of a quilt and I managed to get my hand behind him so he couldn't see me coming. With great relief Sol was dropped into his cage and we were able to get a few hours sleep.

A few weeks later I decided to feed the mice before going to hockey. Something wasn't quite right with their little revolving "restaurant". There was a hole in it. Oh no. I suddenly spied something running across the counter - and grabbed it. The teeth sinking into my thumb & instant pain let me know it was Solly! I quickly opened the cage door and dropped him in - but the little mouse pitt bull wouldn't let go! I looked at him dangling from my thumb in amazement. Carefully squeezing his jaws, I managed to extract him, toss him into the cage, and slam the door shut. The restaurant was quickly removed, the tubing capped, and the blood (all mine) cleaned up. I learned a big lesson about what they can chew through, and how much mouse bites hurt.

A few weeks after that, I had them locked into one cage as I cleaned all their tunnels. After I put things back together I reconnected the tubing. The happy little boys ran through everything, into the second cage...... and right out the spot I'd forgotten to cap! I clamped my hand over one in fear - discovering right away that it was Sol. He sunk his teeth into my thumb causing me great pain. I had no choice but to suffer as I clamped my hand over Stew to prevent him from going anywhere.

I opened the first cage and tried to toss Sol in, but once again his jaws locked onto me. Since he wasn't going anywhere, I picked up Stewie and popped him into the cage, slammed the door shut, and snapped a cap over the open end of the other cage. I now turned my attention to my throbbing thumb. I gently squeezed Sol's little jaws til he let go of me, but before I could send him home, he turned and sunk his teeth into my other thumb! I squeezed his jaws and he let go, but the little bugger flipped around and crunched into my first thumb again! And so we played musical thumbs for awhile before I figured out how to not let go of his head & managed to deposit him back with his brother. I cleaned up the blood (again, all mine) & went upstairs to tend to my wounds.

My adventures weren't over though. A short time later, I was hanging a treat in one cage as Solly raced through the tubing towards me. I quickly removed my hand and slammed the door shut, only to have it come off! Fear gripped me as I slapped the loose door over the opening. Solly launched at me like a deranged bat. There were gaps around the loose door, but the vicious little creature was so intent on flinging himself at my fingers, that he didn't notice. Somehow I managed to entice him back to the other cage for a few seconds. My attempts to reattach the door failed though, and to my absolute horror, it fell inside the cage! Solly returned and in desperation I slapped my palm over the opening. There were gaps around my palm, but again the mad little mouse was more interested in trying to bite my palm. Fortunately, due to the shape of mouse mouths, this was extremely difficult for him. I once more enticed him back to the other cage, and frantically pulled the door out of the first cage and reattached it. I learned my lesson - be fast, be careful, and mice can't bite flat objects.

Despite the fact that they're ungrateful little wretches, we love them, and in May of this year the boys turned 2. They should have been slowing down. They should be old. They should really be dead. Why, then, do they continue to run like teenagers through the tubing to their different cages (they now have 3)? I went back to the web. Seems house mice may have a lifespan of 18 - 24 months, but Deer mice...... 7 years.

Are.

You.

Kidding.

Me.... ?

Seven Years???

Of Mice & Women

One day while Betty was working, a lady walked through the door & let it be known that there was a litter of mice in the shelter parking lot. Now mice are a problem even for a shelter that saves the lives of all kinds of critters, so this news wasn't all that welcome. However, the lady was expectant, so Betty went out & collected the little motherless creatures. Upon bringing them inside, they cuddled into her sleeve, causing everyone to go "Aaaawwwww".



Hand feeding baby mice is usually not successful. They don't tend to survive. However, everyone pitched in and the mice were given nourishment from a syringe. Over the next little while, a number of the babies died, but two made it. People thought feeding them was crazy, but seeing their little paws hold the syringe brought the "Aaaawwww" out again.

Betty brought the mice home after work each day to keep them fed. The plan was to release them when they could eat on their own.

Right.

We set their little cage up in the basement, away from all the cats upstairs. As soon as they became old enough to explore their surroundings, one escaped. He stayed nearby, so Betty snatched him up and put him back in his cage. She bought a more secure cage that afternoon. I looked at her & she mumbled "I bottle fed them...." Luckily, both critters were male.


I looked up mice on the web and discovered their life expectancy to be about 18 months to 2 years. That didn't seem too bad, so I went out and bought some tubing to go with the cage. Might as well give them a good home for their short little lives. Of course it didn't end there. I bought another cage because I felt they needed a bit more room to run around. They were mice & needed exercise! I also got some cute accessories - a 'restaurant' and a 'spaceship'. Within a week we found a large hole in the bottom of the spaceship. Luckily both mice were still in the cage, so I got rid of the craft and capped the tube leading to it.


I named them Stewart (of course!) and Solly, short for Soloman. As they grew, their little personalities came to the fore and we found we couldn't handle them anymore. It was Solly who'd bitten Betty a number of times, and we soon figured it was Solly who had escaped. He's definitely the Alpha mouse, while Stew is at times quite timid and afraid of change. Solly gnaws on the cage when he sees I'm getting the food ready for them. He also reaches through the cage and bats at me as if to say "Closer - closer - I want to tear you apart!" He's pretty fearless. One day I took my specs off and leaned in to inspect a part of the cage. After a few seconds my eyes focused on something moving just in front of my face - Solly reaching through the bars, waving his little paws at me, trying to nab my nose! "Closer - closer - fight like a man! I'll tear ya apart!"


Ungrateful brat.