Mouse Girl

 I bought Marigold on an impulse. It was July of 2020. I was wearing a black muumuu patterned with funky colorful animals and a black, fabric mask. I was going to Petco pet supplies and then to Target. The two were situated directly beside one another. I have never failed to look at the mice when at a pet store that carries mice. They're often my first stop. Before buying bedding or pellets or whatever. Sometimes I sit on the floor--often, I've noticed, the glass tanks of mice are near the bottom of the small mammals  shelves. I suspect this is because more people find hamsters cute than do mice. Whatever. I sat on the floor on this day in July. It had been months since I'd hugged another person. The world was tumultuous and interacting with it was more stressful than ever.  So anyway. I sat on the floor of a Petco, wearing my cutest muumuu, and as I stared at this little orange mouse: she stared back.  I took this picture of the mouse I'd saw and texted it to my fri...

 First, a quick reintroduction. This is Junebug:  She's little. She's white and gray. She's a bit of a nervous nelly. She's very fast. She is seven(ish) months old. She has two sister: Dandelion and Petal. She has lots of aliases including Junie B., Bugaboo, Bug, Buggy, and Little Bug/gy.  She is one of my current mice. I've already written about her here three times. Which is to say, you can find out more about her in  A Climber ,  The Little Ones , and  Mouse Watching - A Play by Play Account .  Now, a little content warning before we continue. This is about a mouse wound, a human's anxious thoughts, a minor mousey medical procedure, and recovery. Some of the descriptions might be unpleasant and there is a couple of photos of the abscess/wound. This is to say, if you would rather not  read about all of that/see any of that, that's okay. Just, stop reading now.  Still reading? Okay great.  A few weeks ago, I saw what I thought might be ...

 I have started seeing a new therapist and when describing some issue she asked whether anyone had suggested I might have OCD before. And, well, yes.  The therapist I was seeing in 2019 was the first person to, in some sort of official capacity, suggest I have OCD. This is likely because, for the two preceding years, as I was quadruple checking the stove in my apartment, I neglected to talk to a therapist. In 2019, though, my symptoms were peaking and I had moved in with my sibling so...there was someone around to be affected by those symptoms. At one point, I had crumpled to the floor in the kitchen, sobbing, thinking I was going to die. All the while, Nash had to stand by, looking concerned. I was so embarrassed that I put them through that, and I felt really guilty. That is what led me to seek anti-anxiety medication and therapy.  Prior to that...I was distressed, a lot, because of my OCD but I just kind of...quietly suffered. Sometimes, I would shame-faced admit to a ...

 Currently, I have three mice. Petal, Dandelion, and Junebug. Petal has a dark orange coat; she is fast and shy. Dandelion's fur is off white--a color that might be called warm vanilla  or chiffon or white owl  if it were on a paint chip. She has a calm disposition and a skeptical squint. Junebug is white with gray splotches across her coat; there is a slight jump to each of her movements.  Their cage is set up like this:  It is a glass tank with paper lining the bottom. I use Kaytee Clean & Cozy bedding. On one side is a wooden structure, which I will refer to as the mouse   house . Next to the mouse house, there is an empty tissue box with a funky floral pattern. Hanging above a portion of the mouse house is a hanging water bottle. At the center of the cage is a satellite style wheel, a little larger than a standard saucer. Directly opposite the mouse house is a cardboard structure--the sort you might find as packing material for an electronic device-...

 I bought three baby mice in Mid-May. I have never met a true baby mouse--those fleshy creatures with closed eyes, like a wriggling pile of alien embryo--but pet stores sell them fairly young nonetheless. According tot he Laboratory Animal Resource Center at University of California San Francisco, mouse pups are pretty well off the nip after a couple of weeks. Chewy (the online pet supply store) suggests mice are fully weaned at around three weeks, and typically pet stores begin selling them when they are 5-8 weeks old.  This is all to say: I got baby mice in Mid-May but I don't know how  baby those babies were. I do suspect one was a bit younger than the other two since she was notably smaller.  Baby mice are always exciting because like all babies they're going to grow . And, yes, of course this means that their bodies will change. In the past two weeks they've all gotten larger. But most excitingly their personalities  get bigger.  So anyway, these are t...

 My wife and I were sitting in bed when I heard the familiar tck-tck of paws on a screen. I flipped forward, belly to mattress, resting on my forearms at the foot of our bed. Head tilted to the side, I peered into the first of two cages on the bookshelf before me. There she was: small, a coat of white and gray splotches, perfect pink toes and round pink ears, hanging upside down.  "I knew it," I cried with glee, bouncing back to a seated position next to my wife.  "What?" They laughed.  "Junebug! She's crawling around upside down."  Six weeks ago, we brought home three baby mice: Petal, Dandelion, and Junebug. Petal is sleek and fast with a burnt orange coat. Dandelion is a very light tan and a somewhat bossy disposition. Junebug, the last of the three that I chose, looked like she might be a week or so younger than the others. She was so, so small then.  She was so small I worried about her in relation to the other two. For the first week or so, we no...