$2.69

Since Gretchen died this week Keiko has been a bit glum. Well its hard to tell with certainty since mice seem to only have three emotions – excited, frightened and sleepy and she was more sleepy than normal. Its probably the first time she has ever been alone and although she wasn’t super-sad, I thought I would get her a companion. So today I went on quite a long journey to get another mouse. I had to go to the Korean store and get tofu and rice vinegar and while I was there I got some fancy rice wine and then I caught the bus to the metro and went to the Animalerie by Snowdon. The guy was really nice but unfortunately when we checked the mice in his cage, all 6 of them were male! Since I didn’t want baby mice to deal with, that wouldn’t have worked. So, I walked along the Decarie to Van Horne and caught the 161 to Cavendish mall. When I got there, I found the pet store I had visited before was permanently closed (honestly, that mall is completely useless). So I headed home, had some soup with Dan, then called the pet store by my work. I have often gone there for food and bedding for the mice but wasn’t certain if they had any. The person I spoke to on the phone said they had a lot, so I went there and they were right. Not only did they have a lot, but they had super-cute satin mice. The guy who helped me pick one said he was happy to sell a mouse that was for a pet (rather than snake food) and so he let me have one of the fancy mice for the price of a regular mouse ($2.69). I also got them a new mouse wheel (at a discount) since the one that came with the cage is super annoyingly loud.

I cleaned the cage and put the new mouse in a bowl, then introduced Keiko. Being the super-curious mouse she is, she was very excited but was nice to the new mouse and started grooming her right away. The new mouse was a bit freaked out by Keiko since Keiko is twice her size, hyperactive and a total stranger. She squeeked a lot but they didn’t fight and the squeeking is supposedly normal for the first few days. I moved them both to the cage and they seem fine. Every time Keiko comes near her, the new one squeeks like a banshee and runs away but Keiko hasn’t gotten angry so I think they will be ok together. We are going to call her Miette, which means “small thing” in French.

Keiko hasn’t figured out the new weel at all and the new mouse is too light to work it!