MiceyUpdate

Crafty Crafts for the Holidays

These four pins are for sale in my >>shop!<<

Images from theWisconsin Historical Society

As some of you may know, I'm working at the Wisconsin Historical Society in the Conservation Lab. Primarily, I make archival phase boxes for their collection of colonial newspapers (late 1700s to early 1800s). They're these beautiful pieces of history! Eventually, I remembered to bring my camera along. Here are some clips from the newspapers:

Tiny Gold Totems

All Lurker Totems available on my [Etsy Shop]

Little Surprises

Ok, so I promise this isn't going to turn into some sort of blog about my pets. But this is supposed to be an "inside look into Mia, the artist" right? Well, it's my blog and I'll write what I please ;)

As many of you may or may-not know, I like to keep many different pets. Call it an experiment. I'm just very curious about all sorts of animal-life and I think the best way to get to know an animal is to live with it. So far it's been rats, toads, frogs, a salamander (these amphibians I caught from various swamps), many different kinds of fish, and most recently, a wonderful hedgehog named Apollo Sunshine. 

 Apollo!

Now, I'm talking about animals I've kept even as a child. Nowadays, I'd probably not feel so entitled to capture an animal from a swamp to keep as a pet. But throughout the years, I've seldom gone a year without an animal to call my pet.

And now, it is mice. Mice are animals I've wanted to keep since I was a little kid at the pet store. I thought they were SO CUTE! But for whatever reason my mom never allowed me mice (because they're pests? food for other animals? She let me have rats, after all).

Well, after returning to Madison, I said to myself: Now it is time! I figured it was perfect because I planned on being in Madison a year or less: mice have a very short life-span. And they're the type of animals that, if you let them free in your backyard, in the spring/summer seasons, they have a good chance to survive and prosper! Clever and thrifty creatures, these mice.

So I went to the pet store and rescued a trio of "feeder mice" (don't talk to me about the moral implications of supporting the feeder mice industry... this was a one-time thing). Well, I told the guy I wanted three girls. The first mouse he gave me, I spotted immediately that it was a boy, even with my untrained eyes. This guy was not to be trusted.

Well, I'm sure you know where this is going. BABIES!

Winnie, my little white albino, had triplets. Thank god she's young and it wasn't more. 

By the way, here is a picture of Winnie and Mr. Man (who has since been moved to his own cage, yet not soon enough as the third mouse, the unnamed/Paralysis, is clearly pregnant too).

They're in love!

And now I'm in this moral dilemma. Of course, whatever babies they have that are female, I'll keep. But the male babies. Well, you can't keep more than one male in a cage, or they'll fight. I don't intend to give each male offspring a cage of his own. That would be ridiculous and expensive. So, they may become squirrel feed. 

But doesn't that totally negate the half-purpose of this? To save mousey lives? 

But, of course, the squirrels need to eat lots of highly nutritious foods to survive the winter, and a mouse-baby is perfect for such a thing. And these squirrels are wild, after all, so they should take priority. Or should they?

Well, as soon as these mice are old enough to sex, I'll have to make some decisions.

I better do a better job of sexing them this time.

In the meantime, it's super exciting to have these little babies! I only discovered them yesterday, when that picture was taken. They look hardly over a day old. Tiny, helpless things. Today, they were slightly bigger, and definitely more active. I think it's safe to say Winnie is a good mother and all three will survive. They were so sweetly with their tiny mouths trying to latch onto the folds of my hand, trying to suckle. You can already tell that one of them will have dark hair (the one in the foreground of the picture) and the other two will be white, how sweet. I sure hope they're all girls!

That is all for now. Stay tuned... I'm sure I'll be posting more pictures of the little guys as they grow. As well as, hopefully, some art!