Tuesday, October 15
Oct. 15th, 2024 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
That our friend seems to be doing okay. They are going to keep him in the hospital in the city until Thursday, as far as they've said.
I had a good conversation with Sister E today, where we talked a lot about "excessive stuff", as it just seems to be an issue for almost everyone I know, myself included.
With our friend in the hospital, the excessive hoard of his parents has literally been the focus of his and his wife's lives for almost four years now as they've spent all their free time going through his parent's belongings and tried to sell anything worth selling, and toss just so much crap that wasn't worth keeping.
What's kind of ironic, is that he and his wife have TONS of stuff, and now with his heart issues, it might be time for them to think about downsizing too.
I always seem to have this love/hate relationship with stuff, as I do love beautiful and useful things, I like having options and the feeling of "plenty to go around", yet I dread the time of down sizing, and trying to do something appropriate with the belongings I will one day no longer have room for.
Then we talked about her Thanksgiving supper at her adult son's place, where a few family members gathered. I thought it was nice for him to do this, as he is typically kind of a loner.
I did work with the music editing software last night, and I was able to put together the two songs from "Beetlejuice" that I want to use in my freestyle. The software wasn't too bad to figure out, and I was able to splice clips together with fades in and out, and lay a second track over part of it.
So, now I have another tool that I can use to make my freestyles a little more interesting.
I was sad to find our little mouse dead in his enclosure today, but not horribly sad because he lived for about five years, which is a really long time for a mouse.
I don't talk that much about Thistle because I know it probably seems a little strange that I kept a wild mouse as a pet, and not everyone "gets it".
Thistle was a baby mouse that I found abandoned in a nest that was disturbed when we were tearing down our trailer. He did have a sibling that only lived a couple of days, but Thistle seemed very robust from the beginning. He did not have his eyes open when I found him, but he did have hair.
I spent about a week feeding him unsweetened almond milk (recommended by the internet as the closest thing to the real thing for mice) warmed up, with a tiny syringe, being SO CAREFUL not to push the syringe too hard and cause him to aspirate. I had to feed him every couple of hours that week, and kept him in a little pail under a light bulb for warmth.
Once his eyes were open he could eat some solid food, and I still fed him a bit of the milk but by then he could lap it up from my palm.
When he was solidly eating, and his little pail was not going to keep him in any longer, we pulled out an aquarium I had in the garden shed and turned it into a nice enclosure for him, and got a wheel for him and those plastic tubes and so on.
I didn't handle him very much, as with wild mice there is always the risk of Hanta Virus, so I was always careful to wear gloves when cleaning his enclosure and things like the water bottle, and washed my hands thoroughly.
Part of me felt badly that he was alone, though he seemed pretty cheerful running on his wheel or organizing his bedding to make fluffy nests. I thought about releasing him too, but from what I understand that probably would have been a pretty instant death, as he would know nothing about the territory and wouldn't be acclimated to being outside.
So, he spent five years in his little home, just being absolutely adorable, and didn't seem to have a single sick or off day the whole time. In fact, he was running away like crazy on his wheel the same day as I found him dead, so it must have been fairly quick.
Farewell sweet Thistle.
I did go to see River, and I was able to put everything together now that I had the edited music.
River was still kind of draggy, and was still not consistent with one of the elements I want to use, but he was better, and today I made a point of being more "encouraging" instead of being "frustrated", and made sure to reward him for his try.
Overall he did well with everything else, and even if he was a bit lagging, he was doing it, so I rewarded him for that effort.
I know I can't forget how important the relationship is with him, as that is the foundation of everything, and if I can't build on that relationship we won't be doing much liberty work.
I did wear the "Beetlejuice" jacket to make sure I can move well in it, and it was fine. I won't have much room for a shirt underneath it as the sleeves are not any extra for room.
My Sweetie did take our friend's wife to see him at the hospital after work, and they both visited with him.
At home we both drove in at about the same time, and watched some "Justified".
That our friend seems to be doing okay. They are going to keep him in the hospital in the city until Thursday, as far as they've said.
I had a good conversation with Sister E today, where we talked a lot about "excessive stuff", as it just seems to be an issue for almost everyone I know, myself included.
With our friend in the hospital, the excessive hoard of his parents has literally been the focus of his and his wife's lives for almost four years now as they've spent all their free time going through his parent's belongings and tried to sell anything worth selling, and toss just so much crap that wasn't worth keeping.
What's kind of ironic, is that he and his wife have TONS of stuff, and now with his heart issues, it might be time for them to think about downsizing too.
I always seem to have this love/hate relationship with stuff, as I do love beautiful and useful things, I like having options and the feeling of "plenty to go around", yet I dread the time of down sizing, and trying to do something appropriate with the belongings I will one day no longer have room for.
Then we talked about her Thanksgiving supper at her adult son's place, where a few family members gathered. I thought it was nice for him to do this, as he is typically kind of a loner.
I did work with the music editing software last night, and I was able to put together the two songs from "Beetlejuice" that I want to use in my freestyle. The software wasn't too bad to figure out, and I was able to splice clips together with fades in and out, and lay a second track over part of it.
So, now I have another tool that I can use to make my freestyles a little more interesting.
I was sad to find our little mouse dead in his enclosure today, but not horribly sad because he lived for about five years, which is a really long time for a mouse.
I don't talk that much about Thistle because I know it probably seems a little strange that I kept a wild mouse as a pet, and not everyone "gets it".
Thistle was a baby mouse that I found abandoned in a nest that was disturbed when we were tearing down our trailer. He did have a sibling that only lived a couple of days, but Thistle seemed very robust from the beginning. He did not have his eyes open when I found him, but he did have hair.
I spent about a week feeding him unsweetened almond milk (recommended by the internet as the closest thing to the real thing for mice) warmed up, with a tiny syringe, being SO CAREFUL not to push the syringe too hard and cause him to aspirate. I had to feed him every couple of hours that week, and kept him in a little pail under a light bulb for warmth.
Once his eyes were open he could eat some solid food, and I still fed him a bit of the milk but by then he could lap it up from my palm.
When he was solidly eating, and his little pail was not going to keep him in any longer, we pulled out an aquarium I had in the garden shed and turned it into a nice enclosure for him, and got a wheel for him and those plastic tubes and so on.
I didn't handle him very much, as with wild mice there is always the risk of Hanta Virus, so I was always careful to wear gloves when cleaning his enclosure and things like the water bottle, and washed my hands thoroughly.
Part of me felt badly that he was alone, though he seemed pretty cheerful running on his wheel or organizing his bedding to make fluffy nests. I thought about releasing him too, but from what I understand that probably would have been a pretty instant death, as he would know nothing about the territory and wouldn't be acclimated to being outside.
So, he spent five years in his little home, just being absolutely adorable, and didn't seem to have a single sick or off day the whole time. In fact, he was running away like crazy on his wheel the same day as I found him dead, so it must have been fairly quick.
Farewell sweet Thistle.
I did go to see River, and I was able to put everything together now that I had the edited music.
River was still kind of draggy, and was still not consistent with one of the elements I want to use, but he was better, and today I made a point of being more "encouraging" instead of being "frustrated", and made sure to reward him for his try.
Overall he did well with everything else, and even if he was a bit lagging, he was doing it, so I rewarded him for that effort.
I know I can't forget how important the relationship is with him, as that is the foundation of everything, and if I can't build on that relationship we won't be doing much liberty work.
I did wear the "Beetlejuice" jacket to make sure I can move well in it, and it was fine. I won't have much room for a shirt underneath it as the sleeves are not any extra for room.
My Sweetie did take our friend's wife to see him at the hospital after work, and they both visited with him.
At home we both drove in at about the same time, and watched some "Justified".
no subject
Date: 2024-10-17 03:16 am (UTC)I'm sorry about sweet little Thistle. It was really cute to hear your story of him. That may sound surprising since I'm the one that yes, sorry, has set traps for mice, and does not like them. That said, a little princess is my favorite classic and possibly one of my very favorite books. In it Sarah Crew gets to know a little mouse which at first freaks her out to find. But then she realizes they are both outcasts and alone trying to survive. So she starts taking the little food that she has and sharing it with the mouse she names Melchizedek. Then she finds there's a Mrs Melchizedek too. lol as I've mentioned before, I think my relationship and understanding with animals would have been much different if I'd grown up differently. For now I try to be if the Live and Let Live variety. You stay out of my home, I stay in it and out of yours. And let's never the twain shall shall meet. lol
no subject
Date: 2024-10-17 04:59 am (UTC)I have had to set traps for them too, though I hated doing it. They used to just swarm into the trailer every fall when it started to get cold, as there were so many easy ports of entry from underneath.
The best scenario is if homes were built in a way that it was very difficult for them to get inside. The way we built our basement for our current home, kind of half in and half out, so that our house is a few feet above the ground level, with no access points, means that it will be very difficult for mice to get inside.
I know that's not how most houses are built.
I've always thought mice as individuals were adorable, though I grew up being afraid of them because my older sister would scream like we were under attack by a Viking horde every time she saw one and literally climb the furniture if she saw one. I thought they were seriously something to be very afraid of when I was a kid.
When I was older I did see some pet mice, and pet rats (though I will say that having rats in your home or other buildings is a whole different ball game from mice, as rats ARE something to be afraid of), and was exposed to them a bit in less scary situations, and then was only "surprised" by them and less terrified of them, until pretty much when we moved to our current location and I started seeing them all the time on our property. I realized that they weren't going to come at me and try to bite, or whatever my sister thought they were going to do.
I saw that they were just little animals, and fairly helpless ones at that.
I'm still going to jump and yelp a bit if I see one where I'm not expecting one, and I still don't want them in the house or where other property might be getting destroyed, and I still don't want one of our cats bringing me a dead one in bed or anything, but I'm also not terrified of them.
While I think that probably a domestic pet mouse might be a better choice for a pet because it's less likely to carry a virus, mice CAN be friendly and cute.
I very much enjoyed having Thistle as a pet, and he was a lot of fun to watch whenever I gave him fresh material for his nest, added something like a new cardboard tube to run through, watched him stuff his cheeks with seeds and run away to put it in his granary (he'd always take some of his food and hide it in part of his enclosure), and I loved watching him groom himself, with his beautiful little paws.
His nest was a big ball of fluff made of that thistle fluff (I read that they liked it for nests, so I collected lots for him), paper towel, and chewed up cardboard, and it was fun to look at it and see where he was in there, detectable by his movements. Then if he heard you, he'd stick just his nose out and make sure it was safe before poking his head out to say hi.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-17 07:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-17 09:44 am (UTC)Sometimes he would come out and just look at the cat while eating something, and yes, I think he was aware that they couldn't get to him.
The cats were pretty fascinated by him, and I wondered if I could be 100% sure they couldn't harm them, I thought it would be fun to have a huge enclosure with some hamsters or mice in them. I don't know if you could ever REALLY be sure they wouldn't get to them, though.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-20 08:54 am (UTC)I'm glad you found a way for them to all live happily.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-21 07:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-21 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-19 06:59 am (UTC)There are many Thistles around, also Fivers and Bigwigs, Rockies, and, alas, Templetons.
What a nice, long life your Thistle lived, safe in his cosy nook!
no subject
Date: 2024-10-19 07:14 am (UTC)Sadly, they have also done a number on the little frogs in the creek just behind our property, though I guess I'm not as worried about gishing them with the lawn mower because there are so few frogs now.
Before the snakes, I was nearly paralyzed about mowing, because there were times that the grass was FULL of frogs. I don't know really, that it's better, because of course this means the snakes are eating them all.
Sigh.
I suppose Thistle's life might have been kind of boring in there, but I hope he was happy.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-19 07:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-19 07:21 am (UTC)Thistle would be a legend among his people.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-19 05:31 pm (UTC)2. Fear of being eaten
3. Being eaten
This is the life of the wild mouse.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-20 06:35 am (UTC)Yet, it must be more interesting to root around in the tall grass looking for seeds, find a mate.
I know that the only thing lacking in his little environment was the kind of stimulation that you'd get from foraging and exploring, and some kind of buddy. I really couldn't give him a buddy for obvious reasons.
I even wondered about the buddy part, because though they say mice are social, would a male mouse be social? Female mice would be social in raising babies, but it's not like I've seen any evidence of them being in big groups in the wild. They might live in groups as in many mice living in a building, but I don't know if that makes them FRIENDS.
Maybe two males would have been friends if they weren't fighting over a female or food, but I wasn't about to go trap another mouse and hope I got the gender right.
He spent a lot of time sleeping in his fuzzy home and running on his wheel.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-21 07:15 am (UTC)I expect mice must be individual in their social choices - perhaps some are introverted and others not. If Thistle lived five years and did not pine away, he almost certainly enjoyed his life.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-21 07:26 am (UTC)