Marty brings me a full circle moment...
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
United States
July 22, 2009 10:45am CST
It all started in the middle of the night maybe 5 years ago during the dead of winter. I awoke to the sounds of a ruckus in my kitchen and got up to investigate. The cats had a mouse who was alive, outnumbered, cornered and terrified. Normally when they have a live one who isn't physically too damaged we catch them and set them free outside, but being that this was winter and very cold out, I rescued the little feller and put him in one of those critter keeper cages for the night (we have a lot of those on hand). He was cute, and seemed to enjoy being safe from the cars so we kept him and named him Twitches (due to hs little twitchy whiskers) and got him a hidey house a a wheel along with a water bottle and some gourmet rodent food. About a week later, I found him swimming in my toilet - somehow he got out of his cage - so I fished him out and put him back in his enclosure and the next day went out and bought him a glass cage with a secure steel mesh lid. I set the whole thing up, completee with toys, wheel and hidey house and went to place him i his fancy new home only to discover he was gone. Apparently he gnawed a hole through the top of the cage and escaped. I found him a few days later,m dead, with the cats using him like a hockey puck in a macabre kitty game.
I had his cage all set up and ready for him, and it made me sad to see it empty, so I bought a hamster to fill that new home. His name was Hammy and he bit me every single day for his entire life whenever i went to feed him or clean his home. eventually he died, as they are not known for longevity, and my little girl was so sad, and seeing that empty cage upset me too so I got a new hamster, Whitey.
Whitey was a really sweet little fella, never bit and seemed to really enjoy being pet and cuddled and loved by all of us. He too eventually died, after a good log hamster life, and I cried when he went because he was such a NICE little friend.
For nearly a year, his little cage stood empty in my bathroom (the one place the cats aren't allowed to go) and very day I missed him.
The other day I went to a pet supply store to stock up on reasonably priced cat food and discovered that the store had expanded and now sold small animals as pets. saw gerbils, cute but expensive ($14 that I just couldn't spare) and hamsters who were also more than I could afford that day, and then, for $1.29 I saw the cute little white mice labeled as "feeders" meaning that they are to be fed to snakes. For a price I could easily afford, not only could I make myself feel better by putting life back into that little home in my bathroom, and make my little girl happy to have a new little family member, but I cold also "save" a life, and give it some pleasure instead of spending it's last moments being strangled and eaten! It was a "win win" as far as I saw it! SO I brought home a cute little white mouse and named him Marty.
Marty is really cute, with a tail longer than his body and big pin ears. I just love him. He doesn't bite, and really likes to run on his wheel and play with his toys and sleeps in his little hidey house. I have come full circle, my adventure in rodent care that started with a mouse, now has a mouse to care for again. My little girl loves Marty as much as I do, he s just so darned cute and NICE!
That's my story. Have you ever fallen for a tiny critter?
2 people like this
2 responses
@Riptide (2758)
• United States
23 Jul 09
Awwwwww that is an adorable story! 
I know you love every critter big and small and that is one of the things I adore about you! I never owned a hamster or a mouse, but I did have bunnies when I was a little girl. My mom didn't like cats or dogs or mice. She was actually afraid of them.
We had a couple of stray cats, which we were not allowed to feed, because they would contnue to come back and dig in the garden.
But one morning I woke up earlier then usual and I caught mom feeding them! When I called her on it, she admitted that she couldn't see the poor little things go hungry. My mom always had a big heart for every living creature, she was just afraid of them. She put the food in the bowls and set them down and scooted back inside quickly before they got too close lol.
The bunnies I had were kept outside, were my dad built an insulated bunny house and a fenced in bunny garden where they could roam. I used to secretly sneak them in with me though lol.
I fell in love with a little mouse once. It was hiding in my best friends basement and her mother kept putting traps up for it and we kept destroying the traps, but one day she got him anyway and we were very sad. 
I know you love every critter big and small and that is one of the things I adore about you! I never owned a hamster or a mouse, but I did have bunnies when I was a little girl. My mom didn't like cats or dogs or mice. She was actually afraid of them.
We had a couple of stray cats, which we were not allowed to feed, because they would contnue to come back and dig in the garden.
But one morning I woke up earlier then usual and I caught mom feeding them! When I called her on it, she admitted that she couldn't see the poor little things go hungry. My mom always had a big heart for every living creature, she was just afraid of them. She put the food in the bowls and set them down and scooted back inside quickly before they got too close lol.
The bunnies I had were kept outside, were my dad built an insulated bunny house and a fenced in bunny garden where they could roam. I used to secretly sneak them in with me though lol.
I fell in love with a little mouse once. It was hiding in my best friends basement and her mother kept putting traps up for it and we kept destroying the traps, but one day she got him anyway and we were very sad. @AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
24 Jul 09
Sorry about your little mouse friend!
Your mom sounds like she was an awesome lady, what a cute story! My mom always initially said "no" to every creature we brought home, but she'd let us keep them anyway, and inevitably helped care for them and loved them up as much as the rest of us. My mom is afraid of snakes, but one day my cat had brought home a little garter snake and my mom felt so bad for it that she rescued it from the cat, picked it up and put him someplace safe outside. Pretty amazing considering how they terrified her.
@MuncheeLee (132)
• United States
23 Jul 09
I have. We used to have a snake. She ate mice and rats. It got to the point we liked her FOOD more than her. They ran around the Habitrail and sat in our hands while the snake just sat. So we gave her away.
When I was in high school the science teacher had a snake in the classroom. He had some pretty silver and gold mice in a cage to be fed to it. I felt sorry for them and slipped them into my pocket. After class I put them in my gym locker until my mother picked me up after school. She almost had an accident when I showed her what I had. I had to give them to a friend.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
24 Jul 09
Bless your heart for rescuing the little mice!
Speakig of food becoming friends, growing up near the sea I always enjoyed eating lobster and crab, until I got a crayfish and later a big pretty land crab for pets, I could never bring myself to eat another lobster or crab again when I realized that they were individual little entities with unique personalities. Plus the whole boiling them alive thing is pretty disturbing.
