# Horror



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I lost 75% of my mousies because the space heater either malfunctioned or I didn't set it properly. It was about 100F. Seventy meeces survived. I''m still pretty much numb with shock, but not so numb as to have taken account of who is left to begin thinking if I even have stock left that I want to breed from. I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

I always check the setting on the heater right before I shut the door. Why I didn't have a right setting is something I'll never know, I guess. Maybe it's time to throw in the towel and get out breeding. I'm so disgusted with myself on top of the sadness and anger that there are no words.

Last night I was tempted to just go on and not reveal what has happened; I don't know why I'm posting this. I deserve every measure of scorn and disgust possible.


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

Oh moustress I'm so sorry to hear that   

It's awful but these things do happen, sweetie. Don't make a rush decision to throw in the towel, it was an accident and we know how deeply you care about your mice. I'm sending hugs your way xxx

Sarah xxx


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## Seawatch Stud (Feb 8, 2009)

Thats just the pits. I know there is nothing any of us can say to make you feel better, but I can't for one moment think anyone on here feels anything but total sympathy for you.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

You must have had a ton of meece if 25% is 70 meece.

sorry to hear about your loss though. We all have stupid moments like that. 
I've left the cat in the mouse room on accident on several occassions. 
I almost lot my opossum because I left the cat in my room once, and he pulled the opossum's cage down, dumped the whole thing in the floor, and FORTUNATELY popped open one of the doors. The opossum RAN and hid in one of my shoes. The cat was still thinking the opossum was in the cage. Phew.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

I'm so sorry moustress.I could share my own tales of tragedy that have occurred over many years of animal keeping,some inadvertantly caused by me and forever on my conscience  Don't do anything in haste.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Words can not express what you must be going through right now. The tragedy upon walking into the mousery to find so many lost would be terribly immense. My heart goes out to you.


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## Wight Isle Stud (May 19, 2010)

SarahC said:


> I'm so sorry moustress.I could share my own tales of tragedy that have occurred over many years of animal keeping,some inadvertantly caused by me and forever on my conscience  Don't do anything in haste.


I totally empathise with SC and of course you Moustress. We are all allowed to make mistakes. I dont know if it helps but as an electrician heaters can be the very devil, they will either fail in all departments,( electrical fault ) or fail to cold, or fail to hot. (Thermostat fault )Ask any fish keeper including me how many aquariums of beautiful tropical fish have died due to heater failure over the years. Chin up, replace the heater, pair up, nd get on with a beautiful hobby.


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## setterchick (Nov 19, 2010)

Im soso sorry (( *hugs*


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## WoodWitch (Oct 18, 2009)

moustress said:


> Last night I was tempted to just go on and not reveal what has happened; I don't know why I'm posting this. I deserve every measure of scorn and disgust possible.


No, Moustress....that's not right!
Scorn and disgust have no place here.

No one could ever say that you don't care for your mice enough. 
I've said time and again that your mice _glow_ with health......and that just doesn't happen on its own!

You (like the rest of us) are only human, and are as prone to human error as the rest.
You don't even know if it was _your_ error.

I'm so very sorry to hear of your bad luck and feel very sympathetic.

Doesn't matter what we all think though my dear......please, forgive yourself

xxx


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

That sucks 

S*** happens - if it malfunctioned, it wasn't your fault. if it was accidently left on the wrong setting, mistakes happen. Don't beat yourself up over it. :kid


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## NuttySian (Sep 1, 2010)

Big hugs for you hun xx


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

I am so sorry to hear this has happend!

dont feel bad for this happening and dont stop keeping mice over this one incident. 
Like others have said some of us have had simular experiances and it does make you feel like just dropping out because it hurts so much.

give your self some time out but try not to end the "mouse breeding experiance" on a bad note.

big hugs x


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks you all so much for your kind words. I was not able to weep until now; I've just been in shock, I guess.

I had to go upstairs before going to sleep just to be sure it wasn't all a nightmare. I'll get through this somehow, with the help of my husband and son who both have been great helps to me with my mousies.

I feel very sheepish and sorry now for giving a couple of you a hard time over things that happened in your mouseries.

I'm not sure where to go from here, but I can't imagine life without mousies, so I guess I'll try to assess my remaining meeces and try to set up a plan for recovering the lines that have been very thoroughly depleted.


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## The Boggit keeper (Mar 5, 2010)

Oh Moustress I am so very sorry, I can only imagine how you are feeling right now.   One thing that is clear from your previous postings is how passionate you are about mice and how much you love and care for them.Sadly, accidents happen. 
It's good to hear that you are going to look at the mice you have and try and salvage some breeding lines.  
If I'm feeling low I go and have some mousie cuddles /playtime, It's amazing how these funny little creatures can make us smile, a house without a mouse wouldn't be a home! :lol: 
Hang on in there and I hope you keep Mousing!


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## zany_toon (Apr 3, 2010)

Oh moustress!! I'm really sorry!! *hugs* There was no way you could have known that the heater malfunctioned. Hugs your way hun, and hugs to your little mousies too!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks for the kind words; I'm still reeling from the shock. But I'm not going to let it stop me. I can't imagine life without mousies. So, last night I assessed what I have and and what I can do to recover the lines that I value the most. I'm especially sore about losing almost every single fawn satin. One very old looking male and one standard fawn female that is way too old to breed. I do have four young 'red' satin males that carry the pink eyes needed for fawn, and I have one satin splashed fawn and two males.

I am grateful that they didn't all die, that's for sure. And there are a lot of tris and splashed among the survivors, so I'm in no danger of losing that part of my mousery. I would never have chosen do do this on purpose, but I had been thinking of scaling back the number of meeces I maintain.


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## The Village Mousery (Aug 1, 2010)

awe honey so sad for you, i lost a few mice a couple of months back to an unknown illness sometimes things pop up and bite us in the bum. You'l pull though you love your mice too much not too


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## geordiesmice (Oct 26, 2010)

Moustress im so sad for the loss of your mice .If you had lived near me in the UK I would of given you some Fawn satin ,that would of not been a problem I have some nice young bucks.Hopefully the ones you have left are strong fit and well. We do get through these times Im sure you will moustress.It was a complete accident not your fault. I lost a full shed of foreign birds one night my heating went off lost most of 50 birds and young some had to be put down it was an exceptionally cold night , but I carried on.Then I gave all My birds to a friend when I moved to a house with a tiny garden. I then got into Mice and love them all. There are always fellow mice friends will help you build up again im sure.


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## countrygall721 (Oct 26, 2010)

Please do forgive yourself. Beating yourself up over it isn't any good either . It was a accident...we all have them! it's part of our human being.. It's okay it make mistakes. I know how much you love and care for your meeces. 
Sorry to hear you lost some meece. It's all okay though!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks, all of you, again, for your kind words. I lost about 200 mousies. It's very different from finding one sick or old mousie dead. The scale of it was just about unimaginable. I had to just do what needed to be done; collecting all the dead without getting stuck emotionally on the loss of any given single mousie...and all the rest of the cleanup. The cleanup waited until I had seen to the welfare of the survivors; especially the part where I gave them all fresh cold water to replace the hot water in their bottles. I am so grateful to have had so many survivors. It's weird to see all the empty tanks and accessories piled up in there.

My setup had finally gotten to the point where I could handle all of the work and have time to enjoy my meeces...oh, well, now there's no reason to put off the kind of investigative pairings I wanted, though I won't be doing those with all the meeces I had been planning to use.


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## salemouse (Oct 9, 2010)

:shock: thats awful! You poor dear. If I had come done to that I think i would have just screamed and run. Its good you had the guts to do what needed to be done and you saved 70 mice! I dont think its like you said in the first post. You didnt kill them, the god of electrical appliances just must hate meese. :/ I think its a better way to think of it that you saved 70 mice. The fact you are in such mourning in and of itself shows your love of them.


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