RandomWiktor
Rabid Betta Activist
((Sorry, no pics yet; I never photograph animals on the first day here as I think they just need to calm down and adjust without a flashing light in their eyes.))
A few months ago, I lost one of my elderly female mice to a mammary tumor. Since then, I've had an empty cage that has just been collecting dusy in my basement. Typically, I volunteer at the zoo around the holidays, and bring home one or two mice from the live feed room that are being beaten up on by the others (which happens a lot, sadly - one year, my patient had no ears, no tail, and a missing eye thanks to its cagemates). This year, however, due to some health problems, I can not do that kind of work. I hate to waste a space in my home if I have the time and money to care for another animal, so I started seeing if there were any mice in need of a good home in my area. Well, "in my area" to me apparently includes Port Jervis, which is a good hour and a half away. While perusing Petfinder, I found a very cute little white mouse who had been abandoned with another male. He had been at the shelter for a while and was apparently hard to place as he wasn't very hand-tame. I do not mind this, as I am more into providing an enriching, exciting environment and plenty of out-of-cage exersize rather than making them something I can put in my pocket and carry around the house. So, I made the phonecall this morning, and was informed that both "Whitey," and the other mouse he came in with (Whitey 2; they didn't really name them) were available. I was origionally only going to adopt the one, but the shelter guy sounded so sad that only one of them was finding a home that I figured, "eh, why not." I had all of the supplies for another mouse set-up, and made space for it by moving one of the girls into my room. I was going to move her anyways as she's been a little ill and I wanted to keep an eye on her.
So, despite a horrible rain/wind storm and a 1.5 hour drive (which became a 2 hr drive compliments of road work), I found myself in Port Jervis today in a very old, but very well maintained shelter. They offered the cages to me, which I politely declined; good thing too, while I was there, they got in a whole mess of dwarf hamsters that need to be sexed and separated ASAP. The boys are now home in their separate environments, and have new names: Leucos and Moreau. Moreau, the mouse "Whitey" came in with, has a very old, very nasty looking penile injury; his poor little member is split in half and has granulation tissue all over the place. However, he urinates fine and the injury appears old, so I'm not too worried. They are both enjoying exploring their new environments.
So, I once again have some new mousey friends to share the holiday season with. Once they're more settled, I'll post pics. Though, thanks to those under-bedding tunnel-and-chamber systems I set up for them, I hardly see them at all.
edit: Here is the picture of "Whitey" (Luecos) from Petfinder. I can easily tell him apart from Moreau because he doesn't keep himself as clean and thus looks slightly greyish.
A few months ago, I lost one of my elderly female mice to a mammary tumor. Since then, I've had an empty cage that has just been collecting dusy in my basement. Typically, I volunteer at the zoo around the holidays, and bring home one or two mice from the live feed room that are being beaten up on by the others (which happens a lot, sadly - one year, my patient had no ears, no tail, and a missing eye thanks to its cagemates). This year, however, due to some health problems, I can not do that kind of work. I hate to waste a space in my home if I have the time and money to care for another animal, so I started seeing if there were any mice in need of a good home in my area. Well, "in my area" to me apparently includes Port Jervis, which is a good hour and a half away. While perusing Petfinder, I found a very cute little white mouse who had been abandoned with another male. He had been at the shelter for a while and was apparently hard to place as he wasn't very hand-tame. I do not mind this, as I am more into providing an enriching, exciting environment and plenty of out-of-cage exersize rather than making them something I can put in my pocket and carry around the house. So, I made the phonecall this morning, and was informed that both "Whitey," and the other mouse he came in with (Whitey 2; they didn't really name them) were available. I was origionally only going to adopt the one, but the shelter guy sounded so sad that only one of them was finding a home that I figured, "eh, why not." I had all of the supplies for another mouse set-up, and made space for it by moving one of the girls into my room. I was going to move her anyways as she's been a little ill and I wanted to keep an eye on her.
So, despite a horrible rain/wind storm and a 1.5 hour drive (which became a 2 hr drive compliments of road work), I found myself in Port Jervis today in a very old, but very well maintained shelter. They offered the cages to me, which I politely declined; good thing too, while I was there, they got in a whole mess of dwarf hamsters that need to be sexed and separated ASAP. The boys are now home in their separate environments, and have new names: Leucos and Moreau. Moreau, the mouse "Whitey" came in with, has a very old, very nasty looking penile injury; his poor little member is split in half and has granulation tissue all over the place. However, he urinates fine and the injury appears old, so I'm not too worried. They are both enjoying exploring their new environments.
So, I once again have some new mousey friends to share the holiday season with. Once they're more settled, I'll post pics. Though, thanks to those under-bedding tunnel-and-chamber systems I set up for them, I hardly see them at all.
edit: Here is the picture of "Whitey" (Luecos) from Petfinder. I can easily tell him apart from Moreau because he doesn't keep himself as clean and thus looks slightly greyish.
