Well, our four little mice have settled in happily and have formed a nice little mouse family. Pansy, who bit Andrew on the thumb the first night we had her, has successfully been tamed and has made friends with Andrew. She’s still a bit on the jumpy side, and prefers me to anyone else, but she’ll let me hold her and she’s got a special way she likes to sit in my hand, a position I refer to as “This is How a Mouse Sits”.
All of the mice enjoy being petted and/or scratched, though they have different preferences. One likes to be scratched gently just below the ears and will collapse into your hand with a look of mousie bliss on her little face. Another enjoys a scratch, but prefers to stretch out on my palm and have a full-body stroke. Recently, one mouse (Lily) has started to do the “head nudge” thing if I’m holding her and I stop petting her head. You know how a cat will nudge your hand to say, “Well, don’t stop, I liked it!”
That’s what this mouse does.
I got my first mouse when I was ten years old, and have had them off and on since then, in between other small animal pets like hamsters (which you can’t have in Australia, sadly) and rats. My last mouse (prior to the group we have now) died in 1994. That was Spot the Wonder Mouse, who I think I’ve mentioned.
The thing is, I’d forgotten just how much I enjoy the company of mice. They’re really quite wonderful little creatures. So playful and curious and so damned cute!
I was really looking toward getting a couple of rats, but rats are so much bigger than mice and they really need a much larger cage, whereas we live in a small house without a lot of spare room. The initial cost outlay is quite a bit higher for rats, too, generally speaking. I will say I still quite like rats, and they stink less than mice, and I intend to have some again, but for now, the mice live in a very nice little cage with all the comforts mice could want, on a space on top of the desk next to mine (technically, it’s the kids’ computer desk, but we haven’t got their computer set up), and it’s quite a nice arrangement.
Well, other than the desk being frequently covered with bits of wood shavings and other things the mice throw out of their cage. I’m going to have to start keeping the dustbuster (okay, it’s not actually a dustbuster by brand, it’s just a handheld vacuum cleaner) in my office…
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