# Greetings from the swamp



## Ariake (Nov 13, 2009)

Hi all, I'm not the best for introductions, so excuse the ramblings.

I'm called Syd by my friends and I've been keeping and breeding mice for fourteen years or so now. I am throughly, insanely addicted to the wee ones, so much I even have mouse tattoos. 

It all started when I was very young, my first pet was a house mouse the family cat caught, who I named Peep peep (hey I was only about 5.) I rescued him and with my mothers help, tried my best to heal the poor thing. I washed up his wounds, put on some ointment, and kept him in a wooden box that was supposed to be for storing potatoes (my grandmother was NOT pleased with this.) I gave him paper, hay and an old dishcloth for bedding and fed him birdseed, dog biscuits, and table scraps. He healed well, though he always had a limp, and he quickly became very tame. I took him everywhere with me, riding in my shirt pocket or jacket hood. He delicately took bread and vegetable scraps from my fingers and loved to be scritched under the jaw. He lived about 18 months from the time I rescued him, and when he passed my mom bought me a small mouse ornament, because it happened right before christmas time. I still have that little porcelian mouse. I have been in love with mice ever since. I have yet to have another mouse who loved human affection as much as Peep did.

Nowdays, I only have a few pet mice. I used to focus my breeding on Satins in Silver Agouti, Champagne, and Cinnamon, as well as Blazed Cinnamons. I started with pet store mice, and over the years produced some rather striking mice for what I had. My favourite was a Satin Cinnamon doe named Riaine, she was probably the best mouse I ever produced in my younger years, and she is where I pulled my mousery name from. To this day I can still remember how elated I felt when she won BOV at a local mouse club show. I was 12, and it seemed the best moment of my life at the time. I hope someday when my kids are older and college is less grueling, to be able to breed mice again. I will still focus on my favourites, I pray to find good Silver Agoutis again. I would also love to breed Cinnamon or Agouti Herefords, as they are the closest to the Blazed mice I had as a kid.

Other than 8 pet mice I have a german shepherd, 2 cats, 2 birds, 2 tanks of fish, 10 rats, and 2 cavies. That seems like enough rambling for now. Off to bed, as I have an early day ahead of me


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## EmtheFishLady (Nov 12, 2009)

Welcome!


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## Rowangate (Jul 28, 2009)

Hi & welcome to the forum


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Welcome! I love meeces on general principle. I used to spend hours on the floor of my uncle's feed house watching the little livestock forage for food. I caught a few with the old box, stick and string setup, putting them in five gallon jars, watching them for a little while, and then releasing them. It's great to have another mousie lover in this Forum. I'm totally addicted too, and have worked hard for ten years to develop a couple of types of mousies, most significantly trying for healthy satins of the American type, then for champagne and fawn and red satins.

I'd love to see pix of your little darlings.


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## Toast (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi


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## jo65 (Sep 22, 2009)

Hi and welcome - I am not surprised that you have to rise early with that menagerie to care for ha ha.


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## WoodWitch (Oct 18, 2009)

Hi.

I love your back story. It is very similar to how I began breeding mice....my naughty Cat also caught a live one and I became a surrogate mother, though for a short time as the mouse died soon after the trauma. But it was long enough for me to become smitten with the small and furries.
I've had a long break from breeding but am just starting up again...very exciting !!

Welcome xx


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I was really hooked when my half-sister stayed with us for a couple of weeks back when I was 4 or 5. She had some wild type meeces in a 10 galllon tank that was filled almost completely with straw. The meeces tunneled and made nest chambers and it was utterly fascinating. My mother was totally freaking out about having rodents in her home; she didn't even like having a cat or a dog inside the house. I wanted to have a pet mouse ever since. My mother and my father struggled over issues of this sort regularly as he was a docent for animals needing rehabilitation through the closest wildlife management area. I had an interesting, if not tranquil, upbringing in the country.


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## julieszoo (May 27, 2009)

Welcome to the forum


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## DomLangowski (Oct 2, 2008)

Hi, welcome to our forum


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

Welcome Syd! I got into mice like you - the pet cat brought one in and I was hooked! How many do you have now?


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