A very sad day.
We have been looking after two wild mice since they were babies, handed to us all pink and almost hairless, about four days old. They have been with us for two years and eight months, but today the largest of them passed away.
Big Mouse has been ill for some time, carrying large tumours on his back and neck, however despite this indignity and discomfort, he always managed to have a play. Last night he was very tired and whilst he still wanted to come out for a look around, in his own little way he asked to go back to his cage.
He curled up and went to sleep, where he quietly slipped away looking more peaceful than he has done for a long time. He leaves behind his brother (little Mouse) and two distraught ‘keepers’ (we never owned him).
May he rest in peace.
Our family once had a pet rat who developed tumors like you described and when she left us it was such a sad time. Mice and rats are such wonderful pets, I wish more people understood how sweet they are. Spit, (our rat’s name was Spit) constantly rearranged her living quarters, giving careful thought to where she wanted her “house” (an inverted cardboard box with a little door cut into one side). She loved the safety of her “neighborhood” which was a 50+/- gallon fish tank that held her little house and her ever changing assortment of toys: a mirror, the ubiquitous running wheel, tubes from paper towel rolls, bells, balls, things to chew on, scraps of fabric, a tin can with both ends removed, etc. A mix of shredded newspaper and cedar shavings padded the bottom of the tank. Spit also loved to play on my niece’s shoulder and hide under her hair while my niece went about her day. I know many people reading this will be repulsed at the thought of a rat as a pet, but they are wonderful, sentient, affectionate and amusing little creatures. I still miss Spit. And lest you dismiss the great affection I had for our little pet, I was not some rebelious teenager wanting to shock people with an unconventional choice of pets. I am 60 years old and sweet little Spit died no more than 2 or 3 years ago.
BIG MOUSE!!!!!!!!
Cool looking mouse too. At least you had a couple of years + joy with him. Was he a Field Mouse 0r a Wood Mouse ? How tame were they ?
In Australia there’s a mouse called the Pebble Mouse. It’s amazing what this creature does. It carries pebbles in it’s mouth and builds nests. I’d say the male does so that it can attract the female. It was thought to be extinct but in recent years people have come accoss the nests.
Thanks Joe – your post brought back loads of memories of the little fella… and his brother (aptly named ‘Little mouse’). We miss them both still.
They were wild mice, born in a neighbour’s garage, inside a bag of bbq charcoal. I guess that makes them house mice rather than field or woods! We lived next door to a church at the time, so they could even have been church mice 🙂
I have heard of mice carrying stones and other objects, indeed Little Mouse used to run for hours in a wheel whilst carrying a hazelnut that we gave him to gnaw on. It used to be very funny when he dropped the nut whilst running – he would skip and dodge it as it hurtled around the wheel with him!
Mice are amazing creatures, often cited as pests (and for sure they can be), but they are a marvellous pet. Ours were very tame indeed, sitting quietly in our hands or playing by running up and down our arms. They were no trouble at all.
We reared a baby mouse we found him whilst his eyes were still shut. He lived for a few weeks in a tiny box on top of a laptop power source just the right amount of heat. Feeding him tiny seeds and cat kibble softened in water. Now he is extremely tame and a wonderful pet, he is 2 1/2 years old. Like the previous posts they need to be kept warm and given a variety of foods soft currents or apple. His favourite is home baked pastry and popcorn!
Previous to that the cat bought in a wild mouse half dead but that one survived 4 1/2 years!
Good luck to u all.