Clara the Stubborn

A week after her incident and (the little brown mouse) Clara, the Stubborn, is still with us. But I can see she is weakening and it appears that her sight is failing in her left eye. Her weight appears to be the same, that is, she does not appear to have lost a significant amount of weight (she has always been a small mouse.) She is not standing up as straight as she did after her slight recovery from her stroke. I have watched as Clara makes her way around the cages and tube system in starts and stops, crawling for a bit and then stopping to rest or even nap. Several times I was fearful that she would not go any further and when I went to check her she would chirp at me and start up again, climbing around in the tubes and going all the way back up into her nest. I am keeping the water bottle at an angle she can reach and crumbled up bits of food in the corners of the cage that are easy for her to grab onto.

Curly (the chubby brown mouse) often tends to Clara, bathing her and snuggling with her. But Curly is also eating up the smaller bits of food meant for Clara. One evening I watched as Curly bathed Clara from nose to tail and then covered her up with bedding before going out to get food.