Gang of Five

An online human acquaintance from a mouse group I belong to posted a very cute post this morning about his mice:

Well, I spent a lousy week in hospital with medical problems irrelevant to this group, but during my absence my friend Elspeth filled in admirably as mouse mother, so all's well that ends well. All mice are named, and here's the run down for the gang of five:

Roan is known as "*Jesus, Mouse! The Silver Streak.
She is the smallest, albeit not the youngest, at the
bottom of the totem, and the first to come to the
outstretched hand of the master. She's adventurous
and explorative to the max, which makes her fun.
Having established her position -- or lack thereof --
she seems quite well adjusted all in all. *Jesus, Mouse!
jumped headlong into a near empty small tea cup
and then tried the same trick again 20 minutes
later when the teacup was full. One third soaked,
and none the worse for wear.

Genie is known as "Billy Ruben Leek" She's the biggest,
albeit not the oldest, as dumb as a box of rocks,
but 100 percent lovable. And middle mouse on the
totem as far as I can see. She seems to have more
loose skin than the others -- fur is sleek and bright --
so I wonder if she's gonna be really big.

"Anthocite Annie," the black mouse of the bunch,
achieves outage by crawling up the back of my
hand and up my arm, even when nearly
a 90 degree angle to the cage floor. This is real
odd because the only other mouse I'd ever had that
did this was also the only other black mouse I'd
ever owned. Annie has been known to treat my
finger as a mouse that needs discipline, but she
always realizes her mistake rather quickly, and has
never gotten more than an aggressive squeeze in.
I think this is due to the fact that she and "Gen Mai
Cha" are still contesting first place.

Alpha Mouse of the moment, Siamese known as
"Gen Mai Cha," is a poor excuse for a Siamese,
having points but a white (fox) belly and some
dark spots here and there on her back; definitely
"pet" quality, but who cares? She's an I'll do what
I want and I'll do it right now kind of a mouse, the
kind of mouse you can man handle without causing
any hurt mouse feelings, a mouse secure in herself...
I think. Every once in awhile she gets tremendously
over-bossy and includes me in the disciplinary process,
which, like Annie, she quickly acknowledges as a bad
mistake.

"Chakravartin" is a yellow-brown beauty, but I worry
about her. First, she's not as tame as the others, and
I've seen her sleeping alone, although usually she
has at least one and often two sleeping fellows. I hear
her make mouse noises on occasion -- the purposeful
kind, not the sort of noise that would indicate respiratory
infection. But, I'm watching her carefully. I need to go
out of my way to scoop her up. The others love out.
BTW, I usually put mice *very* close to my ear to try
to hear those noises that mean trouble.

Annie taught Elspeth to run the tip of her finger around
a table and up and down her arm. Annie rewards Elspeth
for successful finger moving by following quickly
wherever the finger leads. They are both most amused.