Itsy & Bitsy
As found on THE MOUSY MOUSE BLOG
In the summer of 2018 we were enjoying a beautiful beach day with friends and family on the west side of Lake Okanagan when one of my daughters happened to look down off the deck and see two baby mice laying together in the gravel under the barbecue. This brought on multiple reactions from those present, including: “Teach them how to swim!” All of the kids were immediately intrigued, and the dogs were equally interested in the excitement.
When you have a seasonal beach cabin, you don’t exactly find mice to be endearing. A few failed attempts at collecting the mice from the gravel resulted in me stepping in. I didn’t need a sand bucket or plastic shovel—I was quite alright to gently pick the littles up and hold them in my hand. Well friends, it was over then and there. If I wasn’t initially invested, I was now! It was impossible for me, author of a storybook about a mouse, to not have my heart melt in that moment as I gazed down at two teeny babies, eyes still closed, and felt their soft little bodies in the palm of my hand.
It was a big attraction then—all of our kids and the kids next door gathered around to see these tiny creatures. So why would there be two baby mice laying in gravel under the barbecue? Some quick Google-ing found a possible explanation. Apparently mommy mice are not especially good at keeping track of their offspring. We surmised that it was likely that the mice had crawled out from a nest after finding themselves abandoned and hungry. Maybe it was destiny that these little babes had landed somewhere where the Bayford family would visit because for the moment their little lives were most certainly going to be spared.
More quick research found that you could feed baby mice a certain type of infant formula and nurture them until they opened their eyes and were ready to roam free. So a plan was hatched.
Their first protective home was an empty strawberry carton and some paper towel. Hours later they were nestled onto a warm bottle of water and being fed infant formula from a pipette. Luckily we had a small terrarium on hand for just such animal rescues (the first of which was a garden snail one cold fall day, that later reproduced asexually and surprised us with 78 newborn snails! But that’s another story). The pipette we had left over from a DNA kit that my daughter had been given months earlier. We were set.
There was something so captivating about these helpless animals holding onto my finger with their oh-so-tiny fingers and grasping at the pipette as they suckled. It was really bizarre. I of course was ridiculed relentlessly by friends and family—who would check in periodically to see how the mice were doing and inquire as to what “in heavens name” we were going to do with them.
It wouldn’t be long before the mice—now named Itsy and Bitsy, would need to be returned back to mother nature. Knowing that they would open their eyes at approximately 12-14 days of age, and become capable of reproducing as early as 4 weeks old, we established a pretty solid timeline in which to make some decisions about their future.
As their eyes opened, the Infant formula soon was replaced with a dish filled with fruits, vegetables, oatmeal, and oat cereal—often saturated with milk. They continued to snuggle and sleep a good deal of the time, curled up together against the warm bottle in their terrarium.
We had set a date for their release, but they had their own schedule to keep! In the middle of the night I heard a tap-tapping out in the kitchen. I got out of bed to see what was making the noise. I found Itsy and Bitsy jumping around the terrarium like acrobats—and tapping up against the lid! There was no way that lid was going to be opened again in our house. So the release date was bumped up to “immediately”.
The next morning found me deeply stressed. We had rescued these little beings, but were now releasing them into a scary world of birds and other predators. The only solace was that they were no longer helpless.
We gathered a larger than usual collection of food niblets and constructed a biodegradable shelter for them that they could hide under until they were ready to investigate the world beyond. And then we set out with heavy hearts to release them into nature—out into the Okanagan hillside.
It was an experience that none of us will soon forget. And we are sure that a great untold story unfolded, as Itsy and Bitsy found their way, and embarked on many mousy mouse adventures.
Itsy & Bitsy
As found on THE MOUSY MOUSE BLOG
In the summer of 2018 we were enjoying a beautiful beach day with friends and family on the west side of Lake Okanagan when one of my daughters happened to look down off the deck and see two baby mice laying together in the gravel under the barbecue. This brought on multiple reactions from those present, including: “Teach them how to swim!” All of the kids were immediately intrigued, and the dogs were equally interested in the excitement.
When you have a seasonal beach cabin, you don’t exactly find mice to be endearing. A few failed attempts at collecting the mice from the gravel resulted in me stepping in. I didn’t need a sand bucket or plastic shovel—I was quite alright to gently pick the littles up and hold them in my hand. Well friends, it was over then and there. If I wasn’t initially invested, I was now! It was impossible for me, author of a storybook about a mouse, to not have my heart melt in that moment as I gazed down at two teeny babies, eyes still closed, and felt their soft little bodies in the palm of my hand.
It was a big attraction then—all of our kids and the kids next door gathered around to see these tiny creatures. So why would there be two baby mice laying in gravel under the barbecue? Some quick Google-ing found a possible explanation. Apparently mommy mice are not especially good at keeping track of their offspring. We surmised that it was likely that the mice had crawled out from a nest after finding themselves abandoned and hungry. Maybe it was destiny that these little babes had landed somewhere where the Bayford family would visit because for the moment their little lives were most certainly going to be spared.
More quick research found that you could feed baby mice a certain type of infant formula and nurture them until they opened their eyes and were ready to roam free. So a plan was hatched.
Their first protective home was an empty strawberry carton and some paper towel. Hours later they were nestled onto a warm bottle of water and being fed infant formula from a pipette. Luckily we had a small terrarium on hand for just such animal rescues (the first of which was a garden snail one cold fall day, that later reproduced asexually and surprised us with 78 newborn snails! But that’s another story). The pipette we had left over from a DNA kit that my daughter had been given months earlier. We were set.
There was something so captivating about these helpless animals holding onto my finger with their oh-so-tiny fingers and grasping at the pipette as they suckled. It was really bizarre. I of course was ridiculed relentlessly by friends and family—who would check in periodically to see how the mice were doing and inquire as to what “in heavens name” we were going to do with them.
It wouldn’t be long before the mice—now named Itsy and Bitsy, would need to be returned back to mother nature. Knowing that they would open their eyes at approximately 12-14 days of age, and become capable of reproducing as early as 4 weeks old, we established a pretty solid timeline in which to make some decisions about their future.
As their eyes opened, the Infant formula soon was replaced with a dish filled with fruits, vegetables, oatmeal, and oat cereal—often saturated with milk. They continued to snuggle and sleep a good deal of the time, curled up together against the warm bottle in their terrarium.
We had set a date for their release, but they had their own schedule to keep! In the middle of the night I heard a tap-tapping out in the kitchen. I got out of bed to see what was making the noise. I found Itsy and Bitsy jumping around the terrarium like acrobats—and tapping up against the lid! There was no way that lid was going to be opened again in our house. So the release date was bumped up to “immediately”.
The next morning found me deeply stressed. We had rescued these little beings, but were now releasing them into a scary world of birds and other predators. The only solace was that they were no longer helpless.
We gathered a larger than usual collection of food niblets and constructed a biodegradable shelter for them that they could hide under until they were ready to investigate the world beyond. And then we set out with heavy hearts to release them into nature—out into the Okanagan hillside.
It was an experience that none of us will soon forget. And we are sure that a great untold story unfolded, as Itsy and Bitsy found their way, and embarked on many mousy mouse adventures.