Pixie the Baby Field mouse

Hi there!
It's a cold and wet Saturday evening as I sit down to write this post.
My family is otherwise occupied for the time being so I thought I would write this post.

Looking back on my blog posts this year I realized I had not blogged about this sweet little mouse.
And I wanted to share the story...

In December of 2012 we went away for 10 days to the Cederberg Mountains. A beautiful, rustic part of South Africa. So rustic in fact that there is no cellphone or internet signal. The day we were packing up to leave, my friend discovered a litter of new born field mice in her daughter's clothes. We put them in a box and put them in our caravan tent, hoping that the mother would find them and move them to a new home. We saw her zipping past, with a baby in her mouth and were thankful that our plan had worked...or so we thought.

When my husband moved his fleece jacket to pack it away, we discovered she had moved them all to his jacket (and ripped it to shreds making her nest!). So back into the box we put them and waited until she found them.We saw her move one or two and then put the box in the long grass on the edge of the campsite where we had seen the mice had a "run". It was the best we could do considering the circumstances - out in the middle of nowhere and trying to pack up.

Eventually we had packed up and with one last peep into the box, we saw some squirming and heard little high pitched squeaks, but it didn't look like the mother was there. We left and began our long journey home...

Fast forward to a couple of hours later and we were unpacking the caravan. Hubby lifts up some towels and guess what falls out....a teeny tiny baby mouse!

Somehow during packing up, the mother had snuck one of her babies in! Probably meaning to come back with all the others but didn't make it that far. We were not sure if she was in there too. In the meantime I took the baby mouse inside. Not knowing at all what to do. I didn't want to handle it in case we found the mother and then we could reunite mother and baby. So in the meantime I went to the vet and bought some kitten formula, some hamster bedding and a syringe. I did research on google and decided to start feeding the little mouse, not knowing how long it had gone without any food. We put a friendly little trap set up in the caravan (a little box that would simply fall down and trap her in it so that we could reunite her with her baby).

I got a hot water bottle ready and put that in the bottom of the box with hamster bedding on top.I then began the process of feeding the mouse, holding it in a face cloth. I had learned, during my research to take a cotton ear bud, make it damp with warm water and turn the mouse over, stroking it's belly a few times. This is what the mother does, before she feed them. She licks them on their little tummies, to activate their appetite and get their digestive system active. It also wakes them up so that they are ready to feed. I then tried the syringe but it was too big and came out too fast. So I found a tiny paint brush which I dipped in the formula and after opening it's mouth, and putting it in, the little mouse began to suck furiously on it!

It was really quite a process. The little mouse wasn't more than 3cm, fitting in middle of the palm of my hand. It's eyes were still closed. At first she didn't want to feed, but after I got the hang of it, she was feeding quite often. (every 30 min at first and then I switched to every hour). During that night I woke up every two hours to feed it. It was like having a new born baby again! I had to get up to warm the hot water bottle too and re- arrange the bed.

The next morning, I felt like a steam train had ridden over me. The first thing I thought about when I woke up was the mouse, checking on her straight away! During the course of the day, my hubby made a horrible discovery. My cat had caught the mommy! So she had come with after all and the poor thing was probably searching for her baby.With a heavy heart I realized the babies she had left so far behind now didn't stand a chance...I was so sad. I realized too that now this tiny, fragile sweet little life rested entirely in my hands!

I had read the chances of a such a small mouse (probably only 4-6 days old) surviving were very slim but that those that did manage to hand raise one, did so to raise a very loyal, loving little pet. I had hope...

However as the day progressed little Pixie grew steadily weaker and wasn't drinking at all. I held her as often as I could to keep her warm. I couldn't hold her continously though...later on, I went to check on her(it had been about half an hour since I had last checked and tried to feed her) and when I opened the box I could see she wasn't good. I picked her up, she felt cold and faintly stirred in my hand.

 

I knew it was her last...I held her and just sobbed. As silly as it may sound. I had invested so much into this tiny little life and was willing her to live. I held little Pixie as I felt her tiny little life ebb out of her. I just couldn't bring myself to go and tell anyone or put her down. Eventually I went to my hubby and told him.
The children were sad too, but I cried more than anyone...
We buried little Pixie in the garden. I was sad for days after that! I couldn't even bring myself to clean up her little box until a full week later.

So that is the little story of the tiny little field mouse Pixie that crept into my heart for just over 24 hours.
It was an amazing experience, even though the end result was so sad.

In a world so often filled with hatred, violence, and intolerable cruelty between human beings, something as tiny, weak, fragile and sweet like this happens. To hold such a tiny little life, a non-human life and be totally in awe with creation, with the beauty of life itself, in any form...