Pack Rat Less Two Mice
About two weeks ago, we discovered that our pet mice, Brookie and Robin (uh-oh, do they need pseudonyms too?) were missing. We had checked on them one day in the afternoon, given them fresh food and water. By the next afternoon, they were gone. We had been alternating them between two cages – a 10 gallon glass tank with screen lid and one of those funky plastic hamster cages with the interesting tunnel connectors. They were safer (obviously, in hindsight) and easier to care for in the glass tank but JediBoy had picked up the hamster cage at a yard sale and decided they had more fun in it.
Maybe they did. Our best guess for what happened is that one or both of them were running in the giant wheel on top and somehow rocked it loose. The next day, the wheel was disconnected and both mice were gone. We left the cage open, kept food and water out, set the glass tank out on the floor with more food. When we came home from our vacation on Tuesday night, we had to accept the fact that these mice were gone. They’re not just hanging out in the house – we saw no evidence that the food, water or bedding was disturbed in any way, and we’ve seen no evidence of mousey activity (er, poops) anywhere in the house. They fled.
Surprisingly, JediBoy was very calm about the whole thing. I think it may have to do with the amount of time he’s spent reading and talking about animals, watching animal shows ranging from Diego to Planet Earth. He asked if they were wild mice now, and if they were happy.
Today was the day I decided to finally pack up the cages and equipment and clean out the playroom a bit.
I discovered the mice are truly gone, but the pack rats are here to stay.
I asked JediBoy to sort through a pile of Little People (I don’t really play with these anymore, Mom) to choose a few he might like to keep out, and we’d pack the rest away for GuateGirl. The keeping-out pile was mightily bigger. We patiently sat and sorted them another way instead – putting all the zoo animals in one bag, ark animals in another, construction workers in a third, and so on. When we were done with that, he was very content to choose one (townfolk) to keep out and put the rest away. Phew!
It didn’t stop there, though, and as a result tonight the room looks worse than when we started. We’ve been working our way through every bin, basket and box on the shelf and in the closet, trying to make hard decisions about what we love enough to keep out. And in case you are worried that I’m putting too much stress on him, there hasn’t been any talk at all today about donating any toys to anyone other than his imminent little sister. The only choice is playroom or basement, so nothing will be disappearing forever. (Yet!)
