I should get a Girl Scout badge for saving the most animals in one week
I sometimes really feel like Dr. Doolittle or Marty Stouffer from Wild America or that guy who wrote All Creatures Great and Small. I'm typically saving frogs from Death By My Father but today I added a new creature to the list of rescues.
I'm sitting on my bed watching Undeclared when I hear my mom yelling for me to come and see something. So I go downstairs and I find her pointing at something on the floor right in front of the back door. She whispers Does that look like a mouse to you? I got closer and yes, it was a tiny mouse. He wasn't moving so I thought for a moment it was dead until it lifted its cute little head to look at me. My mom got me a shoebox, which I gently put over it. Then my dad handed me a magazine to slide under the shoebox while saying Now take it outside and kill it. Hell no! Growing up with the massive amount of gerbils I had, there was no way I was going to let the little baby mouse get killed, at least not by human hands (although I don't have any problem with mouse traps).
It was a baby and it was insanely cute. I took him outside and he huddled in the corner of the shoebox, shaking.
Then I thought before I let him free, I'd see if he was hungry. I grabbed a box of cereal that isn't very good as it's healthy and I put some of it in the box. He immediately tried to eat some. But I don't think his teeth have fully developed yet as he didn't see able to chew on it. He was kind of licking at it and gumming it, I guess.
I was thinking something softer might work so I gave him a raisin. He loved that and it looked like he actually managed to eat some of it.
After his snack, he was very intent on running laps around the box. After stretching and discovering there was no way out of the box on the ground level, he took to trying to jump out.
I took him to the edge of our back yard where there are trees and weeds and piles of dead branches and such. I tipped the box and he scampered out and immediately burrowed underneath a stick.
I was definitely getting attached to the little guy and was contemplating fishing an old gerbil cage out of the basement, but I knew that wouldn't work. Now I want gerbils again.
Animal rescue tally for the week:
4 frogs
1 mouse
I'm sitting on my bed watching Undeclared when I hear my mom yelling for me to come and see something. So I go downstairs and I find her pointing at something on the floor right in front of the back door. She whispers Does that look like a mouse to you? I got closer and yes, it was a tiny mouse. He wasn't moving so I thought for a moment it was dead until it lifted its cute little head to look at me. My mom got me a shoebox, which I gently put over it. Then my dad handed me a magazine to slide under the shoebox while saying Now take it outside and kill it. Hell no! Growing up with the massive amount of gerbils I had, there was no way I was going to let the little baby mouse get killed, at least not by human hands (although I don't have any problem with mouse traps).
It was a baby and it was insanely cute. I took him outside and he huddled in the corner of the shoebox, shaking.
Then I thought before I let him free, I'd see if he was hungry. I grabbed a box of cereal that isn't very good as it's healthy and I put some of it in the box. He immediately tried to eat some. But I don't think his teeth have fully developed yet as he didn't see able to chew on it. He was kind of licking at it and gumming it, I guess.
I was thinking something softer might work so I gave him a raisin. He loved that and it looked like he actually managed to eat some of it.
After his snack, he was very intent on running laps around the box. After stretching and discovering there was no way out of the box on the ground level, he took to trying to jump out.
I took him to the edge of our back yard where there are trees and weeds and piles of dead branches and such. I tipped the box and he scampered out and immediately burrowed underneath a stick.
I was definitely getting attached to the little guy and was contemplating fishing an old gerbil cage out of the basement, but I knew that wouldn't work. Now I want gerbils again.
Animal rescue tally for the week:
4 frogs
1 mouse