Re: vacation.....HA!

I hear ya Marge...I'm just like you. That hard winter when we caught our first two in the house..my husband yelled..."GRAB A CAT". I screamed "NO...It's just trying to survive like the rest of us...it's solid ice outside..no food, water is frozen...catch it and save it!!!" So, he did. Reluctantly. But ya know...after he caught it...he went to the store and bought all kinds of gerbil stuff cause he thought it was so darn CUTE. Then we caught another one. I don't like them in the kitchen either...but out here on a farm...it's hard NOT to have them come in. They just DO. So I catch them with the humane traps and let them go. My husband swears they come back for dessert.



From: "Marge Talt" <mtalt@hort.net>
Reply-To: gardenchat@hort.net
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Subject: Re: [CHAT] vacation.....HA!
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 02:03:15 -0400

That's right, Jesse, deer mice is the other name for them I couldn't
think of.  They are cute, but I read that they don't make good pets
when they're adult...don't know if that's true as I really didn't try
to tame the ones I reared as I knew I needed to release them (had 6
cats at the time and had to keep them shut in their aquarium in our
bathroom for safety).  On day, while I was cleaning out the box, one
of them got loose; chased it all over and it disappeared into thin
air.  I was frantic as I was sure it had gotten out somehow and one
of the cats would get it.  Went to take a bath later and found it in
the tub, where it couldn't get out as the sides were too steep and
slippery for it.  Apparently, it had run up a towel hanging on the
edge of the tub and hidden there and thence into the tub...caught it
again:-)

Really interesting little critters when you have a chance to observe
them.  I used to have one of those traps that they'd go in one side
and couldn't get out but you could release them, in the kitchen as I
am not fond of them in there.  Used to take them outside and let them
go; am sure they came right back in.  Fed them oatmeal as I recall.
Very cute to see them hold one flake of oatmeal in their paws and
munch it.  They also were fond of peanut butter...and, of course,
birdseed.  After a while, they'd end up springing the traps - went
through several of them before currant cat, who is a mighty hunter
and no mouse has a chance if it shows it's whiskers, so I don't have
a kitchen mouse issue anymore......sorta miss them:-)

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
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----------
> From: Jesse Bell <jesserenebell@hotmail.com>
> I agree Marge...I think they're cute too...around here they call
them "deer
> mice" because of the fawn color and big, big black eyes.  I've
caught
> several in my house and we kept them over the winter cause there
was no
> place for them to go in the ice (we had three months of solid ice).
 I have
> a cockatiel and I fed the mice the same bird food and Cheerios.
They loved
> it.   When spring came, I released them.  I was sad.  They are so
darn cute.

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