Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Asian Tsunami: The Animals Knew

Evidence is being discovered that the animals sensed something was wrong, and went to higher ground in Sri Lankha. Human bodies are being found, but no animals...

Agatha the Budgie

This is Agatha the Budgie
On one special morning walk, I reached my hand up to my shoulder and she hopped on. Then I turned her so she faced me and lifted her upwards, into the air perhaps 6 or 8 feet. She opened her wings and gently fluttered back down to me. I caught her in my hands. She liked it. She had that "lets do it again" look all over her face. So we did it again and again. Higher and higher she went, sometimes circling two or three times before coming down to my hands. It was a wonderful experience, for both of us.

From Lucky In Love: A Pigeon Story
This reminds me of Christopher and Agatha, our Budgie (that's her in the picture...) They've begun this game recently where during Agatha's out-of-cage playtime, Christopher has her come perch on his finger, walks across the room, then launches her into the air towards her outside cage perch. It encourages safe flight, and interaction/play between them. Speaking of safe flight, she can be rather reckless at times, trying to land on the ceiling fan...while running!

Training

Oliver has been recently adopted. He is learning the importance of training his human...

Monday, December 27, 2004

Brats

Christopher found a clip-on water bottle unclipped and dragged across a cage this morning. The mice that were present when it was found were busy using it to build their nest against, looking very pleased with themselves. Chris refers to them as 'little brats', but all in good fun.

Lately they've been rooting around in the bedding so vigorously that the underbedding of corn cob, like little pebbles, come spewing out between the cage wires onto the floor and my countertop in the kitchen, where they live. Quite a mess, I can tell you, and I scold them with a smile on my lips, and they never take me seriously...Well, what can you do? They're so cute!

Saturday, December 25, 2004

FTM & Suet

Over the holidays, we heard from FTM's human friend, David...
The mouse was jumping up and down in delight when he got an email from America :) He's coming out more in the daytime now: I may be able to get some photos soon. He loves eating suet.
David went on to say...
The mouse is nonchalantly filling himself with suet and almonds even as I write. But my camera has dead batteries. No doubt you will hear from him again, by and by.
Well, we certainly hope so, David.

Monday, December 20, 2004

Neighbor


Neighbor
Originally uploaded by A. Subset.
This photo on Flickr, struck me as not only incredibly detailed, but also capturing this little 'neighbor' in a very natural manner.

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Book Find: "The Mouse and His Child"

A "magical book", the reasons it speaks to such a wide range of readers is that "...in its inventive celebration of junk it reveals the consciousness of a child. In its lyricism it suggests a young man newly in love. In its tenderness we see the father of young children. And in its dark places we meet a middle-aged man in crisis." - The New York Times Book Review
I was delighted to discover a book today titled The Mouse and His Child.

Now, as soon as I read that title, I HAD to find out more, of course. It was an intriguing title, not because of the word 'mouse' (well, maybe a bit...!), but because it was followed by '...and his child'. THAT is what made it unique, and thus worth looking into.

Sight unseen, I have ordered a copy for myself, and my grandsons, and they are on their way to us as I write this.

I did a bit of investigating online just now, and found a few sites of fans who love his work. One site even mentions the first ever convention about this author will be this coming February. What an excellent time for me to become aware of him. And here I was cynically thinking I may have no worthy authors left to discover...

Mouse News III

Researchers are finding out that giving honey orally before cancer appears (preventative) inhibit development of tumours in mice. They are also finding that injecting royal jelly after cancer appears (treatment) significantly reduces the spread of cancer.

This is great news for mice and those that love them, since tumours are one of the most common health problems with mice. It's good news for their human friends, too, since this could be indicative of future treatments that might help them, too.

Once again, mice lead the way...

Friday, December 17, 2004

Baruchito Update

I am a HUGE Baruchito fan. Since early November, you obviously have been busy because no updates. Many of us are curious - how are the baby hamsters? :)

Trish
_______________________________________

Hi Trish,

Thanks a lot for your mail. :)

There have been no updates since November because I'm very busy lately, having to do two jobs. Baruchito, Flan and the babies are fine... except for one male who died two weeks ago. :( We gave him to a friend of mine who apparently didn't have any experience with pets, and looks like the poor baby got a cold and died a few days later. The other four babies (two boys and two girls) are still living with us, and we'll be giving three of them to two friends in Hiroshima when we go there for new year.

We're keeping one girl. She was the smallest of the litter, but also the most friendly. She really likes to play on my hands. You can see a photo of her here (when the two females where still on the same cage)

By the way, her name is Nana. :)

The funny thing is that each of the babies has developed his own personality or habits. One of the boys, for example, cannot live without some tunnels or some narrow place to hide into. We think he's the one who's sleeping in the last item I posted on baruchito.com. He's the one on these photos:

http://www.ag0ny.com/misc/bonsaihamster.jpg
http://www.ag0ny.com/misc/bonsaihamster2.jpg
http://www.ag0ny.com/misc/bonsaihamster3.jpg

He has a very big CritterTrail cage, but he looked sad until we put a lots of tunnels on it. He's spending most ot the time running inside the pipes and sleeping.

The other boy has a normal CritterTrail cage (like Baruchito's). He runs a lot on his wheel, but he has a very bad habit: he likes to have his toilet just next to his bed, on the second floor of the cage, and AFTER removing all the sand/wood chips that I put there. We have to clean him every day, and I'm thinking about blocking the pipe so he can't use the second floor and is forced to use some other place as toilet. If you know some way to make him do this without blocking access to his nice bedroom, please let me know. ;)

I will update the blog software as soon as I can, because something went wrong with the current one and users cannot post comments for some reason. When I do that, I'll post a lot more things about Baruchito, Flan and the babies. :)

Regards...

Thursday, December 16, 2004

World's Oldest Mouse

I must say, IDG1-030 was a mouse with character. It touched my heart to see that the scientists with which he worked all his little life, cared enough to memorialize him...

The Mice of the London Underground



This book tells a story about the mice of the London Underground.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

The Mice Write Back to FTM...

Dear Mouse:

We think you sound quite brave, having a fox for a friend, and to know a pigeon, and even know a cat!

You ask what we do...well, we love running in our wheels - you know how it is with all that energy! But then, there are some of us who love nothing more than a good nap and a cuddle. Especially now that it's a bit chilly outside. We're very lucky to have a nice warm house to live in.

Some of us are really industrious, making large, warm nests for all of us to cuddle up in. We notice, however, that our Humans get rather cranky after we've been kicking around the bedding and some falls on the floor. You'd think they'd thank us for sharing!

Mabel, our patriarch, has a special friendship with Christopher, his Human friend. He loves sitting in Christopher's hand for time on end, watching him type with his other hand on the computer, or just sitting in companiable silence together.

Belle is the oldest among us. She loves sitting on Trish's collar, and rooting around in her hair at the base of Trish's neck. Sometimes she crawls to the top of Trish's head to look around. She is very brave!

Pudding, the mother of us pups, requested that we ask you to tell us more about the fox. We have never seen a fox...

P.S.: Do you have a name?

Mouse to Mouse

The first email from FTM to our mice arrived this morning!
helo i am the mouse
the fox is leting me send a mesage on her computer
the kind man said there were mice in america that wanted to get mesages from me
so here i am
but i have never done this befor so i hope you get my mesage
i live in an old blackbird nest on the side of the kind ladys house and i am trying to mend it so i can be dry when it rains
but it is not cold living outside even though i am a house mouse
some mice have been talking about the weather and how it does not get so cold anymore
i think this is a good thing
i like to eat bird food but i like to eat cheese and nuts even more
i have asked the kind man to make it easier for me to get into the bird cafe because i sometimes fall down when i am trying to get in and then it is hard to climb back up the wall
what do american mice do? i have never met one
at first i thought the fox would eat me but she didn't
she is quite a nice fox but she has got a sore foot
i just saw the pigeon as it came for its breakfast
and i saw the squirels who come every day too
i didnt get much sleep last night because the nightingale was singing to loud
the kind man is teaching me english so i can have my own website and i have lerned a lot
but he says i need a bit more practice befor i can be famous
i must go now because it is geting light and there are some crows in the garden
byby
the mouse
"Oh, he sounds quite brave!" exclaimed Quimby.

Mabel wiggled his whiskers, thinking.

"Tell him we like to run on our wheels," Belle said.

"Speak for yourself," Pudding commented, "Personally, I'd rather sleep."

"There's nothing better than a good round of nest building, I say," said one of the little brown mice (one of three otherwise known as the Triplets of Belleville...)

Mmmm, I thought, and making messes for me to clean up off the floor...!

"Human hands make very comfortable beds," Mabel enthused, no doubt thinking of the warm kind hands of Christopher, his friend.

"I personally love the neck area myself, all that fur on their head to root around in!" Belle cheerfully opined.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Yes, for now," Pudding said. "Oh, and ask him to tell us a bit more about this fox person..."

"Alright then," I agreed. "Let's 'get the pen and paper out', and send along your responses!"

FTM Accepts

David, the mouse's human friend, emailed to say...
The Mouse is sending you a message!

This is not a good thing for the mouse...

It has already started going to his head, causing all this commotion, and all.

He was a very weird mouse to begin with, but who knows where this could go now???

But he was - of course - only too pleased at the idea of corresponding with North American Mice, but did express slight concern over his possible inability to decipher
their odd way of speaking :)

In fact, I just saw the mouse, as I went out to offer him an almond. The almond proved too heavy and he dropped it. So I picked it up, broke it in two, gave it back to him, and he had to make two trips to his sky-house.

Last time I looked there was this year's fox cub (a.k.a: Long Tip) gazing up at him!
He also sent us pictures of his friends, the OEC and the FTP, aka the One-Eyed Cat and the Famous Tooting Pigeon. I must say, for a suburb of London there sure is a lot of wild and/or stray animals around. I have a feeling that David is kind-hearted soul. I like that...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Puzzled

The mice and I did some research. We were not sure why the English mouse's human friend called him the Famous Tooting Mouse. At first we thought maybe he made tooting noices? No, we thought. It must be some other reason.

No, he's from Tooting, a suburb of London. Silly us.

Here's a peek.

Pen Pals


Oh, the mice are excited.

I told them today that there is an English mouse that has written to us from across the Pond...
"Hello! I am the Famous Tooting Mouse! I am not a tame mouse, and I live outside.

I was not always famous, but then I realised that all the food I was eating was being put out for me by a person. That was when I decided to stop being so timid, and to become bold. Soon I was getting even better food from the person, and began having my picture taken. Now I have cheese and an almond every day, to go with my wild-bird seed.

So my advice to other mice is this:

Stop being so scared! Be as bold as you can, but don't bite anybody! Soon you will be loved and cared for, and will never be hungry again.

And if you see a fox watching you, run away, but watch to see if it is a nice fox or not. There are actually some very nice foxes out there, who may not eat you just for being a mouse. And most birds are nice too. This is my advice to mice."
Of course, many of the mice were perplexed by this advice, since they always thought people were nice. (But then, they didn't realize not everyone was as lucky as they were and had nice humans around to wait on them hand and foot...)*

"We should write him back," they tell me. Indeed. What shall you say, I ask? "Mmmmm," they say.

* I must explain, however, that the FTM does have a Human Friend, a very special one. He used to run a very famous toy shop in London...

Monday, December 13, 2004


As you can see, the Mouse City has expanded somewhat since the last time we have shown it...and what you see here doesn't even count the backside 'streets'...! Posted by Hello

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Science & The Mouse

Most countries honour their war dead, but China has erected a monument for a little thought of but altogether more cuddly martyr -- the mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and monkeys who gave their lives to science.
China has decided to honor the mouse for its crucial and important role in legitimate scientific research.

At the same time, others around the world protest research of a very different kind - not for a cure for a disease, but for what appears to be profit-motivated...

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Mouse News II

This news story amazes me. To think we can actually incorporate organic neurological functioning into a synthetic/manmade computer is incredible. How it is imagined, let alone accomplished, it beyond my comprehension despite the explanations given in the short article. I have no idea if this is the first time there's been a successful demonstration like this, but the implications are astounding.

And to think it is starting, once again, with the help of a humble rodent...

Mouse Games

An online mouse friend shared this story about one of his mice who likes to play games...
Since you mention your mice inventing games, I thought you might appreciate this story. I've posted it before, but that was a long time ago. It's about my mouse Athena.

When Athena was about 6 weeks old she was very active. Many deer mice are active, but she seemed almost hyper active, even for a deer mouse. I remember watching her run on the wheel very fast climb to the top of the tank and run around upside down and just act crazy. Her cage had a house on one end and a parrot food cup on the other end with a ladder for her and her mom to climb to the cup.

She would run on the wheel, jump off while it was still spinning and run over to the house, climb the house to the screen, run upside down to the parrot food cup on the other side of the tank, drop into the cup, run down the ladder as fast as she could and back onto the wheel. After a quick run on the wheel she would do it all again. At first I thought this was just some repetitive action like a dog running in circles.

After watching for a while I started to laugh because I figured out what she was doing. She had invented a challenging gymnastic game. She had created a circuit to follow like a race course and like a race course there was a time to beat. The point was to traverse the entire course before the wheel stopped spinning. The thing that gave it away was that she would only run on the wheel long enough to get it going as fast as she could and than she would jump off with the wheel going at full speed and run the course as fast as she could. If the wheel stopped before she finished (it almost never did) she would just run a little longer on the wheel to get it turning at full speed.
Mabel plays a little game with Christopher when Christopher opens his cage door to pick him up and cuddle with him. He will go hide, then come out like he is about to walk onto the hand, then he'll run back, peek out, etc. until he finally comes onto the hand like he's saying, "OK, I'm ready now", and sometimes even squeaks in satisfaction...or is it impatience?!

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Mouse News

MOUSE BANDIT

Carinthia - 12/01/04 - Someone was stealing cash from a shop, but thanks to a video-camera, authorities got their man - and it was a mouse. A security camera set up inside the shop in Villach in the southwestern Austrian province of Carinthia helped the owner figure out who was making off with euro 50 bank notes from the cash register. It turned out to be a mouse looking for nesting material. The critter was caught on camera.