In May we went for annual portaging trip and in tow were two tween girls (this becomes relevant later on).

At some point during our adventure a friend was fishing and noticed a mouse swimming for it’s life away from a snake. Being the professional fisher-woman that she is, she was able to reel in the snake (no harm to the snake-minus losing it’s dinner!) and was able to safely retrieve the mouse from the water. She then proceeded to show the mouse to the overly compassionate tween girls who instantly fell in love and decided we needed to foster it. I say foster not rescue because it’s eyes weren’t even open yet! This thing needed serious caring for by a mommy!

Luckily for us the previous campers left some garbage (probably the first and only time this will be a good thing!). There was a cardboard box that we figured we could use to contain the mouse. So we collected some moss, twigs, pine cones and leaves to create a woods-like habitat in this box.

Out of 12 people not a single one of us knew quite what to do with it, so being the hardcore modern day campers that we are, we decided to google it, 😉 Turns out you need to give it milk (preferably non-cow) every few hours from either a paint brush or a tiny nipple. Resources were a little scarce on the island we were on, so we had to make do with what we already had. We found a little container that I use to take a small amount of soy sauce for flavour related emergencies and decided to try that as a feeding tube. It didn’t work because it poured out too quickly and started drowning our poor little orphan so we found a rubber, bolt cover on our canoe which fit just perfectly on the nipple and we cut a tiny slit in the tip so that the liquid would come out in a more controlled fashion.

The kids had it in the box overnight and took pretty good care of it considering the circumstances. We fed it very often although it wasn’t too receptive to our 2% lactose free milk (which to be honest most of the campers were reluctant to drink as well…). When we were leaving, the girls decided it wouldn’t survive without our intervention so we canoed it home! Yes, canoed is a real word. I googled it.

Once we were back in the city, we obtained a plastic container (as a home) and a thin tipped paint brush (as a mouse nipple simulator) from my hippie-vegan-animal-rescuing-friend who always knows and has just what you need! Which is especially convenient on a long weekend when everything is closed (grocery stores, pharmacies, even Wal-Marts damn it!).

Based on the very detailed information that I found on www.thefunmouse.com I realized that I had to feed this thing every 2-3 hours around the clock! Thank goodness I have a spare room by my desk at work where I could hide this thing and not disturb or scare the crap out of anyone!

There was however one member in our household, that to say the least, was not thrilled about our new addition.

It did not open it’s eyes for 5 days after I found it! So for 4 days I took the mouse to work and woke up every 3 hours at night to feed it using the paintbrush. I certainly recalled why I was procrastinating on having more kids that’s for sure-EEK! There was even a delusional, sleep-deprived fantasy about it getting loose and my cats getting a hold of it. I am not proud. Also, did I mention it requires a belly massage until it potties after every single meal. Yup.

One day I even had a baby sitter lined up for this thing so I wasn’t distracted at work and my whole weekend was organized in 3 hour intervals so I could make it home for regular feedings!

Based on retrospective calculation from when the mouse opened it’s eyes it must have been around 7-9 days old when we found it.

Once it did open it’s eyes I was allowed to start weaning it. A long, complicated and currently ongoing process which is taking a while!

Weaning consisted of experimenting between variations of soaking oat cookies and cracker bread in either goat’s milk, kitten formula, water or baby cereal and the final verdict was that Hubert just wants baby cereal with nothing in it. Which I guess is fine for now. I can’t really be stressing about having an obese mouse…

At least we kept Hubert alive past infancy and now he/she (I have no clue how to tell the sex of a mouse) is lively, jumpy and extremely friendly 🙂