How The Mighty had fallen...

Actually I think Mighty was more likely to have been dropped than just fallen.

Last night we went out to water the plants, after returning from lovely aperos with our French neighbours. I'm not sure what prompted me to look down as I wandered past the chickens' pen, but, I did. I saw a teeny, tiny grey ball move, well, shiver more like, and stopped to see what it was. It was a baby mouse, eyes squeezed tightly shut. I thought he was all alone and realised he must've been left by his mum. We scooped him up and took him inside.

After getting over the wow factor of how intricate he was (he's so perfect and little and cute!), we decided that perhaps his best chance of survival was actually with his mum, so we agreed to put him back where we found him - but keep an eye on him because he was quite cold and I wasn't sure at all how long he would last. As I put him down, I noticed another little ball that was slightly hidden under a twig, motionless and trembling.

This seemed wrong to me. In that time the mum would've had time to collect the other baby...so something must've happened to her. Why else would she leave two babies by themselves in an exposed area? Not convinced that mum would come along, I decided to take them inside, it didn't seem as though it would be long before they would be too cold to survive.

After packing in buckets of internet research into about twenty minutes, we readied some warm milk, filled a hot water bottle that we covered with a tea towel, found a clear plastic storage crate, and got cotton wool buds at the ready (some for feeding and some for rubbing the genital area - apparently if you don't do this it can create a fatal blockage).

Sadly, the smaller mouse died last night and we buried him by our vine in the courtyard. His brother had to get used to being by himself so we gave him a toy - but looking at the picture, maybe it seems giant and a bit scary.

If this last little guy had any chance of survival we had to feed him during the night and so I set my alarm to go off every two hours and we took all feeding essentials upstairs, including the kettle - that way we could warm the milk and refill the hot water bottle. Before we went to sleep we decided to call him Mighty, not just because of the cartoon character Mighty Mouse, but also because he is showing great strength so far - especially when I woke up to find my bulky pillow had fallen off the side of the bed and onto the crate! Phew, no harm done. Our Mighty is the real deal – he's THE Mighty Mouse.

Mighty survived the night! And today his minute hands and feet are more detailed, he is cleaning himself and this morning clutched the milky cotton bud with his hands to lick the milk off and then pushed it away when he'd had enough - I even saw the beginnings of little teeth forming in his mouth. He is very, very cute.

I know, I know - the chances of him surviving are minimal, but, you never know, he might make it!

Awwwww - and he's just started to squeak!!!!!!!