When my daughter Allyson was working at the pet store miscellaneous additional residents arrived in our home unannounced. These included; several fish, an African dwarf frog, a fresh water shrimp and one unintended addition a pink-eyed white mouse.
The mouse was supposed to be delivered to a friend of hers as dinner for a snake. She was just stopping in for a minute and it was a hot day so she brought in the plastic container with the obviously shaken tiny little guy so he wouldn’t roast in the car- kind of an ironic action. She placed the container on the kitchen counter and I asked “What is that?” She explained his fate to which I replied “He looks like a little marshmallow. I can’t let you feed him to a snake.” and his ultimate fate was sealed.
On board, Allyson returned to the pet store and another mouse was picked up to be sent to his fate at her friend’s house. This one, left in the car when she returned with a cage for our new addition and other rodent necessities for his comfort. I asked her if a cage was OK. Questioning if it might not hold him. Working at a pet store clearly made her an expert so when she explained it would be a cleaner environment and the close space between the bars would keep him in I proceeded to set him up in his new habitat on the same counter where Marshmallow’s destiny had been altered.
The center of attention for the next hour or so, Allyson’s step-father said he didn’t really like having a “rat” in the house but realized he had been over ruled. Lilly my granddaughter heard him and began calling him the “Marshmallow Brat” to soon be known as Marsh. The fanfare faded off and Marsh seemed to be settling in nicely so we got on with life. Just by chance I decided to check on him again. Something didn’t look right. Looking closer I noticed he had squeezed through the bars and he was behind the cage! I grabbed him by the tail and found a small plastic aquarium that was currently unoccupied to put him in. Not having been bred for the wild his life had been saved twice in one day. Allyson returned the cage and exchanged it for a safer easy to clean small glass aquarium that was inescapable.
Marsh flourished in his new home. We got used to the perpetual squeaking of the wheel throughout the night and he quickly learned what fresh produce and popcorn was. We often have Chinese wonton soup that comes with crunchy noodles that my granddaughter loved to snack on even before she had teeth. We ended up calling them “Chinese Baby treats”. She eventually would share them with the dogs, so they were then called “Chinese Dog and Baby treats”. One day she wanted to give one to the mouse and we discovered that he LOVED them! So now they were “Chinese Mouse, Dog and Baby treats”. As you might figure Marsh was quickly growing into a chubby not so tiny guy.
Now pegged a sucker at the pet store, there was a hamster with a tumor in his head that got sent to our house to give him some “life before death.” He lived out a couple of months with the same pampered life as Marsh. Eventually the tumor got so large one eye was forced shut and he could no longer drink water from the spout. Every little while for a few days I gave him a drink with an eye dropper. He would put his little paw on my finger and drink a few drops then return to the corner to sleep. Then the day came when he didn’t wake up. He was buried under the willow tree in the yard and his larger aquarium which was now a much better fit for his size became Marsh’s new home.
After about a year Marsh’s perfect charmed life was interrupted by a condition he developed called Mouse OCD. Mice exhibit increased anxiety and compulsive behaviors associated with OCD, such as excessive grooming. At one point he had scratched all the fur off his chest and upper arms and he stopped running in his wheel. I would actually hear him squeak in pain and I would speak softly to him which seemed to bring some comfort. Articles suggested adding things to chew on as a diversion but he continued to groom himself raw. The only thing I could think of doing was try to help him heal. He seemed to be losing his appetite as too. I got him some vitamins actually meant for larger rodents. He was not doing well and I figured what did I have to lose? To my relief they did help some. But he still kept scratching. Mostly his left side of the face now and his face was puffy but his appetite was returning and he was beginning to run in his wheel again.
Allyson had warned me that his life expectancy was less than a year. By New Year’s Day 2012 he had already beaten the expected life span by six months. Last night he crawled into his little log filled with fluff he arranged as his warm comfy bed and went to sleep forever. Good Night Marsh, sleep tight. I hope they have Chinese mouse treats in mouse heaven.
RIP Marsh 2010-2012
The mouse was supposed to be delivered to a friend of hers as dinner for a snake. She was just stopping in for a minute and it was a hot day so she brought in the plastic container with the obviously shaken tiny little guy so he wouldn’t roast in the car- kind of an ironic action. She placed the container on the kitchen counter and I asked “What is that?” She explained his fate to which I replied “He looks like a little marshmallow. I can’t let you feed him to a snake.” and his ultimate fate was sealed.
On board, Allyson returned to the pet store and another mouse was picked up to be sent to his fate at her friend’s house. This one, left in the car when she returned with a cage for our new addition and other rodent necessities for his comfort. I asked her if a cage was OK. Questioning if it might not hold him. Working at a pet store clearly made her an expert so when she explained it would be a cleaner environment and the close space between the bars would keep him in I proceeded to set him up in his new habitat on the same counter where Marshmallow’s destiny had been altered.
The center of attention for the next hour or so, Allyson’s step-father said he didn’t really like having a “rat” in the house but realized he had been over ruled. Lilly my granddaughter heard him and began calling him the “Marshmallow Brat” to soon be known as Marsh. The fanfare faded off and Marsh seemed to be settling in nicely so we got on with life. Just by chance I decided to check on him again. Something didn’t look right. Looking closer I noticed he had squeezed through the bars and he was behind the cage! I grabbed him by the tail and found a small plastic aquarium that was currently unoccupied to put him in. Not having been bred for the wild his life had been saved twice in one day. Allyson returned the cage and exchanged it for a safer easy to clean small glass aquarium that was inescapable.
Marsh flourished in his new home. We got used to the perpetual squeaking of the wheel throughout the night and he quickly learned what fresh produce and popcorn was. We often have Chinese wonton soup that comes with crunchy noodles that my granddaughter loved to snack on even before she had teeth. We ended up calling them “Chinese Baby treats”. She eventually would share them with the dogs, so they were then called “Chinese Dog and Baby treats”. One day she wanted to give one to the mouse and we discovered that he LOVED them! So now they were “Chinese Mouse, Dog and Baby treats”. As you might figure Marsh was quickly growing into a chubby not so tiny guy.
Now pegged a sucker at the pet store, there was a hamster with a tumor in his head that got sent to our house to give him some “life before death.” He lived out a couple of months with the same pampered life as Marsh. Eventually the tumor got so large one eye was forced shut and he could no longer drink water from the spout. Every little while for a few days I gave him a drink with an eye dropper. He would put his little paw on my finger and drink a few drops then return to the corner to sleep. Then the day came when he didn’t wake up. He was buried under the willow tree in the yard and his larger aquarium which was now a much better fit for his size became Marsh’s new home.
After about a year Marsh’s perfect charmed life was interrupted by a condition he developed called Mouse OCD. Mice exhibit increased anxiety and compulsive behaviors associated with OCD, such as excessive grooming. At one point he had scratched all the fur off his chest and upper arms and he stopped running in his wheel. I would actually hear him squeak in pain and I would speak softly to him which seemed to bring some comfort. Articles suggested adding things to chew on as a diversion but he continued to groom himself raw. The only thing I could think of doing was try to help him heal. He seemed to be losing his appetite as too. I got him some vitamins actually meant for larger rodents. He was not doing well and I figured what did I have to lose? To my relief they did help some. But he still kept scratching. Mostly his left side of the face now and his face was puffy but his appetite was returning and he was beginning to run in his wheel again.
Allyson had warned me that his life expectancy was less than a year. By New Year’s Day 2012 he had already beaten the expected life span by six months. Last night he crawled into his little log filled with fluff he arranged as his warm comfy bed and went to sleep forever. Good Night Marsh, sleep tight. I hope they have Chinese mouse treats in mouse heaven.
RIP Marsh 2010-2012
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