UPDATE – the landlord was about to come over and ‘dispose’ of the mouse I captured in the humane trap. It just seemed so wrong to capture him humanely and then allow someone to drown him. I tried to release him outside but I couldn’t figure out how to open the trap, and I also thought he might be condemned to die a frosty death. Eventually, with much input from my softer-hearted friends, I decided to adopt him, name him Frankie, and let him live in a spare aquarium until the springtime – then I’ll release him outside. Eventually I figured out how to free him from the trap. Now he spends all his time jumping up and down, trying to figure out how to escape from the aquarium. Here are a couple of really bad photos – the first one is Frankie exiting the humane trap and entering the big aquarium world. The second one is Early Exploration of the New World.
Very interesting follow-up. My first pet was a hamster and I bought an aquarium to keep her in. The biggest problem was keeping the water dish fresh because she would toss shavings in there all the time. Another problem was that she figured out how to get out of it, by climbing on things I had put in there for her, even though I thought I was very careful not to give her anything she could climb on. So I put a lid on the top and weighted it down. Nevertheless, she would escape every so often so I finally bought a wire cage. This allowed me to attach a proper water bottle to the outside so the water stayed fresh. Unfortunately, I bought the bottle with a rubber stopper and she eventually managed to pop the stopper out and end up with no water. So I got a bottle with a screw cap and that worked for all the other hamsters I eventually got. Finally, she figured out how to force her way out through the door in the top of the cage, even though it was spring loaded to stay closed. I had to use twist ties to hold it shut. By the time I got my second hamster, I had it all figured out but poor Arabella was the testing ground. And one other thing, mice are much smaller than hamsters and could probably escape through the bars of the cage I used to have. If you do go to the pet store to get a cage, make sure the bars are very close together or that it is mesh, which would be even better (bars can spread apart like in the cartoons!). After all this, I was going to write “good luck†again, but I wonder if, now that you figured out how to get him out of the trap, you should maybe just set him free under a bush after all?
I had read your mouse story yesterday and was thinking about a solution, but I could only come up with the same thing as you did. Keep him inside till spring :). I hope you won’t get too attached to Frankie, which is a pretty hansom mouse if I might add. Oh and if you decide to set him free eventually, I suggest you do it far, far away from your home. It looks like you are spoiling him rotten; he will find his way back for more treats in no time
I chanced on your blog by googling “knit nut”. (Don’t ask…) This reminds me of an issue of Ranger Rick I had when I was a kid – there was a an article about a woman who adopted a mouse that had nested in her cutlery drawer. Anyhow, I hope for your sake that Frankie is indeed a boy, and therefore, not pregnant. I suspect from Frankie’s pov, the aquarium is just a larger “humane trap”. He’s very cute in the photo. I have to agree w/ Dakota’s advice on setting him free tho’ – get him as far away from your house as possible! Good luck! Oh – if your friends do knit him little mousey clothes, you’d better post it!