JudyS
09-22-2004, 02:07 AM
I'm feeling a bit under a curse these days....after having to leave my very beloved poms with my mom & brother and my very spoiled sun conure with a friend when we came out to California (for a minimum of 6 months), the only pet I (we) were left with was Peanut, a pocket mouse who we have had for more than 3 years. He is about 2 inches long, not including his tail and weighs no more than a nickel and is very cute. He is very tame and pretty fearless for something so tiny. He got a cool new cage when he got here with lots of colored tubes and was spending his days roaming the tunnels and his nights on his wheel. In the evening, my son Brian & I would let him out and play with him.
Last Thursday night, we forgot to close up the tube when Peanut had gone back into his cage for the night and the next morning when Brian got up, Peanut was gone. We looked everywhere for him and since we currently don't have much furniture or stuff in our house, it was easy to see that he wasn't here. Because he is so tiny, he can slip through a space the width of a finger, and I think he went down into the vents below my house and then out. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of cats in this neighborhood, so his fearlessness is going to be fatal I'm afraid. :(
As as last-ditch effort, we dropped one of the tubes into the vent in Brian's room and back up into his cage, hoping that he would come back in search of food if he was just wandering in the vent system.
Brian cried himself to sleep in front of the vent in his room for two nights and his suffering made the loss even more acute for me, although Brian thought that I was heartless and didn't care because I stopped looking after two days. :(
In an effort to distract him from the loss, I offered to buy him a new mouse while we continued to look for Peanut, so on Saturday we went to the store and bought a little gray mouse with a white star/blaze on its face. We brought it home and it retreated immediately to the most isolated spot in the cage that it could find and stayed there. It rarely ate and wouldn't play (even at night) so tonight I got it out and took a closer look at it because I hadn't gotten to see it at the store before it was in the take-home box and then into the cage. It has a rather large tumor growing on its back. So tonight I had to tell my already heart-broken 10-year old that the mouse we just got to ease the loss of Peanut is dying from a tumor. He went to bed crying again & saying that I just didn't care. :( Even worse, he's mad at God -- first for not helping Peanut find his way back and now for killing his only remaining pet.
It just goes to show how important our pets are to us....I miss my dogs & bird every day; the only thing that keeps me from losing it completely about them is that I can have them back when I go "home". They aren't lost to me forever...just for now. I can't say the same about Peanut or Snuggles.
Last Thursday night, we forgot to close up the tube when Peanut had gone back into his cage for the night and the next morning when Brian got up, Peanut was gone. We looked everywhere for him and since we currently don't have much furniture or stuff in our house, it was easy to see that he wasn't here. Because he is so tiny, he can slip through a space the width of a finger, and I think he went down into the vents below my house and then out. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of cats in this neighborhood, so his fearlessness is going to be fatal I'm afraid. :(
As as last-ditch effort, we dropped one of the tubes into the vent in Brian's room and back up into his cage, hoping that he would come back in search of food if he was just wandering in the vent system.
Brian cried himself to sleep in front of the vent in his room for two nights and his suffering made the loss even more acute for me, although Brian thought that I was heartless and didn't care because I stopped looking after two days. :(
In an effort to distract him from the loss, I offered to buy him a new mouse while we continued to look for Peanut, so on Saturday we went to the store and bought a little gray mouse with a white star/blaze on its face. We brought it home and it retreated immediately to the most isolated spot in the cage that it could find and stayed there. It rarely ate and wouldn't play (even at night) so tonight I got it out and took a closer look at it because I hadn't gotten to see it at the store before it was in the take-home box and then into the cage. It has a rather large tumor growing on its back. So tonight I had to tell my already heart-broken 10-year old that the mouse we just got to ease the loss of Peanut is dying from a tumor. He went to bed crying again & saying that I just didn't care. :( Even worse, he's mad at God -- first for not helping Peanut find his way back and now for killing his only remaining pet.
It just goes to show how important our pets are to us....I miss my dogs & bird every day; the only thing that keeps me from losing it completely about them is that I can have them back when I go "home". They aren't lost to me forever...just for now. I can't say the same about Peanut or Snuggles.