Of Mice and Mice and Mice and M...

A few weeks ago Broad Shoulders took a trip to an open house for animal rescues at the city pound. (Photo courtesy of Chicago Animal Care and Control Rescue.)

I was overwhelmed. Dogs who'd been held at the pound as "evidence" for court cases were being presented and the crowd clapped when one was taken in by a rescue. It is a joyful thing because a dog at the city pound is in danger of being killed. We celebrate when one is saved, but we know that we are celebrating because so many are killed. I teared up then, and I'm tearing up now.

We walked through the pound and the rescue pulled several cats. I wanted so badly to foster an animal myself, to save just one, but my own special needs animal is about all I can handle.

... Until we came across a tank of mice. They didn't stand much of a chance at CACC. Theoretically small animals can be adopted - but they don't have a space to show them. Mice I could handle, and mice are valuable little individuals too.

I was reassured that they were all female. "Males have very prominent testicles," I was told. Well, not Clint Beastwood! Boy, did I drop the balls on this one!

Predictably, just a few short weeks later I lifted a snuggle pouch I'd given the mice and found a pile of tiny, precious pink baby mice. It was well within the bounds of the mouse gestation period. Simple, I thought. Maybe the mice were just pregnant when I took them in. In fact, I'd been concerned about the possibility all along, and worried when one of the mice looked fat.

I began to worry that perhaps this was not the case. How to tell though? Disturbing the nest or disturbing the mother could scare her into abandoning her litter (mice can't afford to waste their energy on babies who won't survive, so if they are frightened they might abandon or cull their babies.) None of the three adults are used to being handled so picking them up to examine them could be dangerously stressful. Worse, I had no idea which the mother was and didn't want to frighten the wrong mouse.

I should mention that all three mice took wonderful care of the litter. They snuggled them, moved them back to the nest when they wandered and carefully maintained the nest, even closing the "door" after themselves whenever they entered or left. Now that there are two litters (oy!) both moms care for and nurse both as if all the babies are their own. A friend of the rescue says that this is unsurprising, her mice took similar care of an elderly, sick mouse in the colony. What awesome little animals!

Luckily for me, the mice made their nest in a without bedding under it in a glass tank on a glass table, so I could see through. Through my little window I saw the only mouse I hadn't thought was fat nursing.

Not wanting to disturb the mice, it took more than a day to get a peek at all of them and to find my suspect. Unfortunately, a mouse can get pregnant within 24 hours of giving birth and this isn't good for her (not to mention that breeding is directly counter to BSAR's mission!) Thankfully, it seems that this didn't happen, but it's too early to be sure. In my defense, the difference was subtle in Clint - even the vet took a few minutes to confirm my suspicions.

It turned out, the mouse I did suspect was fat was also pregnant. Surprisingly, she had 10 more days to go and ballooned to quite an impressive size. (I suspect she may have delayed birth due to the first litter.) Our second litter was born on Valentines Day!

Needless to say, this has certainly been a learning experience for BSAR. We aren't sure how, but we will find every single one of the little guys a loving home. I don't regret saving them one bit - but there are things I'll remember next time!

We are accepting applications for the first litter now - they are just about ready for their forever homes!