At least she was able to go with her littermate there to comfort her instead of alone, outside and vulnerable.
At least she was able to go with her littermate there to comfort her instead of alone, outside and vulnerable.
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
That's the sentiment, basically "she might have survived if we were able to catch her after she ran away, but at least she didn't die alone." She spent her last hours of her short life being coddled and cuddling with her brother and the two big strange creatures who brought her into her house and lavished her with food and attention and a warm safe place to sleep.
When we got her inside and were feeding her last night, she had this sense of being relieved, I guess? It's hard to describe. That sense you feel when an animal lets its guard down around you and feels secure.
Speaking of cuddling, the Colonel actively and aggressively seeks warm fuzziness. If you have a beard you WILL have a Shoulderbunny as he crawls up into your warm scrubbly neck region. He also agrressively tries to nurse, and unlike Bean, HE has teefs and is not shy of using them. We figure that they got Bean early enough that he took to bottle feeding very easily, Col. Mustard expects a nipple, dangit, he doesn't want any part of that plastic tube business. So the compromise is both you and him wearing most of the milk and he bites/licks it up.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Like 10 years ago my oldest son got a bunny from a cat, the nest was someplace in our yard. The rabbit did not look hurt at all but died overnight, not a fun morning.
In reply to Aaron_King :
Cat's saliva contains a lot of bacteria that's harmful to most other animals. Generally if an animal suffers a cat bite it'll almost always die if not treated with antibiotics quickly.
Colonel is not well. Just found him a little bit ago. His eyes are all checked out and he's not moving much. T is holding him in a piece of blanket ATM.
He was fine this afternoon. Then just not. Looks maybe neurological the way hes acting but idk
Correction. The Colonel has passed
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Colonel is not well. Just found him a little bit ago. His eyes are all checked out and he's not moving much. T is holding him in a piece of blanket ATM.
He was fine this afternoon. Then just not. Looks maybe neurological the way hes acting but idk
Correction. The Colonel has passed
Belated photodump from yesterday.
The Colonel, on the other hand, made sweet love to a banana, and then daddy's beard
In the morning a couple days ago, after pulling all the cars out of the shop, I found a baby mouse in the middle of the building.
Well, the front half of one.
Yesterday around lunchtime, I needed to use the torches, so I moved them from their home and found a baby mouse huddled up under. His legs were all splayed like he was too young to stand. Erk. I picked him up (no struggle) and his eyes were still closed. Took him outside and figured, well, it's a mouse. Probably was a nest in a customer's car, one found a belt and one just fell out.
...
After work, I checked... mouse was still right where I left it.
*sigh*
"Hey, wanna take care of a baby mouse?"
Scooped him up into a box with some rags and toilet paper. Immediately tries suckling on toilet paper. Poor lil guy was starving. Got him to bunnydad's house where warm milk was waiting and he LAUNCHED out of the box with the force of a thousand wiggleworms. Eventually he realized that milk = food and he ate some and went into a food coma.
Today:
We both figure little Penfold will be outside as soon as he can eat solid food.
Made [kid#2] cry. They were having a rough day so I let them hold him and feed him.
(Aka sit with a hand full of mouse and milk for 5 or 10 minutes while he suckles and licks it all up and skitters about)
His reverse works much better than his drive right now and he still wobbles and falls over when he's too full or on his back feet too long. He's got lil bambi legs all shaky and learning how to work lol
Emotional support mouse!
He doesn't have a bottle nipple small enough for a mouse but Penfold seems tp prefer eating from a puddle, anyway. I noted him trying to suckle on a piece of toilet paper so I tried soaking some in milk but he was having none of it. That was yesterday, he seems to have calmed down quite a bit.
Eating by bathing in it then cleaning yourself is not, strictly, the most efficient method, but it works for him.
Getting bigger fast.
Snuggling with dad. He sleeps in my hand like that!
He slept in my arm for like 20 minutes and woulda stayed but I needed my arm back lol
Clearly he has adjusted to life not in someones car...
Oh yeah. Doesn't even jump anymore when you go to pet him
Scrambles for people as soon as he hears us
No way!
Yep. Put your hand in the box and he'll be climbing your fingers so frantically he shakes with excitement lol
He shakes when he eats too. Like he can't contain himself
Mice tame up incredibly easy and do not grow out of it. The security is something that they simply do not have in the wild. A hamster type cage, cage and secure lid for it are in order. Especially because they have an incredible sense of smell so if it were to be released anywhere within 2/10th of a mile of the house, it would find it's way back.
Capt downshift agrees that we've got ourselves a pet
We're thinking he is a wood mouse.
From what we'd been reading, mice are already "semi domesticated" because they have lived around people for so long. This lil guy certainly loves people, about as much as Bean did before he got to adulthood.
kid2 certainly is in love with the little guy. My only fear is that either of the two big dogs might get to it and bam, gone.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Honestly part of the reason why they become so easily domesticated when they meet a larger mammal that doesn't consume them is because in nature their life expectancy is less than 2 years because everything from owls to hawks to foxes to raccoons to bullfrogs can and will eat them. And they actually recognize and feel stress and emotion, internally, and they're social animals. Even if the unfortunate were to occur with one of the dogs, the life that it will live until that point will be much easier than what it would face on the outside. There are not many wild animals that I would make that proclamation regarding, but mice are definitely within that group.
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
Ford Rangers will kill them too.
We had to tear the dash apart on a new one to extract the mouse that didn't make it out of the AC unit.
Gave him a home with a light for warm
He likes to hang out in this little bubble
Still prefers snuggling with dad
Little guy definitely getting all the love and attention he could want.
His weird gimpy foot worries me, but I am told it isn't bothering him in the least. He's getting atrong enough that he can tripod on his tail for a short time. Very short, but baby steps (literally)
I'm not going to lie, seeing a picture of him in the cage for scale I can tell you that he's comfortable in and likes the cage otherwise he would have squeezed out between the bars already. He feels that he is in a comfortable and secure setting.
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:I'm not going to lie, seeing a picture of him in the cage for scale I can tell you that he's comfortable in and likes the cage otherwise he would have squeezed out between the bars already. He feels that he is in a comfortable and secure setting.
I did not think of it till you said it, but your right. He would net even know those bars we supposed to slow him down!
Hey, being the smartest race on earth (y'all catch that reverence, I assume) he prolly knows they will keep the dogs out!
In reply to 03Panther :
In reply to 03Panther :
Dammit! I should have named him Benji.
Heyyy... I hate to be the bearer of bad news again, but I went to check on Penfold (who had a fine morning on the patio) and he was dead.
He looked like he was sleeping. Just gone. *shrug*
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Got this text today.
Sad day good day, Bean just left for his growed up life in the wild
Got this text today.
He came through the winter well, that's a beautiful, full thick coat that he has on himself.
In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
Yah, they would see him run up to the car when they'd get home, then run away because instincts take over.
I had seen him a couple times, you could see the internal conflict between "OMG FRIEND" and "Danger! Run away!" and, as pointed out, they only know RUN! so he'd sort of wiggle there for a minute looking at me and then run away.
They have better eyes than me, they can tell his little ears and gimpy foot. I can tell it's Bean because there is that moment of indecision before he runs off that other rabbits don't have. Hard to describe, it's like Bean freezes because he wants to come up and say hi but his intincts say no, other rabbits freeze because they are calculating the moment they have to run away. It makes sense when you see it (and I have a bunch of rabbits in my own neighborhood, none of them act like Bean does)
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