New lens! I am in love with the 50mm I picked up today. Thanks so much to many-splendored-rat for her advice while I was picking this! (And if you haven’t seen her blog you should check it out - she has awesome rat photos and the occasional mouse.)

People often try to convince me mice cannot be tamed. “It’s impossible. They just bite all the time.” 

I’ve been bitten, in total, twice by mice, and both times were my fault, and neither time broke skin. My mice are tame, and sweet, and will be settled for the vet to examine them, and they do various tricks. Including standing up on their back paws to beg for food. I own eleven right now, and in the last three years have never had a time I didn’t own them, and while I’ve had a couple of nervous mice, NONE have ever been untameable.

Problem is, people think they can’t be tamed and will just bite, so they don’t tame them, and then they bite all the time. Mice are tiny. Your big hand coming down on them is SCARY if they’re not used to it! Nothing is automatically perfectly tamed. But if you’re nice to them, they’ll be nice to you :-)

(Also please ignore the crumbs and the poo… they were playdating in the bath and there were ten of them in there at the time… it gets messy FAST!)

First time playing with new camera (Canon EOS 60D) - really pleased with this shot of Garcia.

Every time a mouse is standing on me long enough my skin gets warmer - I think they’ve peed on me.

Luka, please stop scrabbling at my neck. You will not get purchase to climb my hair as I just had it cut (she is extremely put out by this) and you are half again the size of any other mouse I have ever seen so when you put all your weight on your claws it hurts!

Also. My crotch is not a mouse bed. Ever. 

Yeah… I’m going to need my mice to all run away now so I can have rats…

IT IS ABOUT RATS.

I currently have 13 mice, five of which are old enough to probably die this year. I’m going to let my colony get teeny, then see how I do. Then I have two choices:

EITHER. I decide hells yeah mah mice, damnit, and up the colony numbers again.

OR. I let the rest die out as they get old, then have rats.

I wasn’t going to have rats until my dog (currently 6 yrs old) had died then my next dog (futurepuppy) was at least a year - because I want to clicker train them and Holly is scared of clickers, and I wouldn’t have the energy for new rats plus puppy.

BUT. I realise I can clicker train with the end of a pen that clicks and it’ll still work, and Holly doesn’t worry about those.

AND. I realised my favourite mice are always those who act the most like rats.

I love mice. LOVE them. They’re a big part of my world. But I’m craving rats again. I want something that can roam around my room, that can hang out with me without peeing everywhere, that I can maybe throw a harness on and let hang out in the garden with me sometimes, that I can leave the cage door open and just let them wander for a bit because they’re totally safe to do so.

Mice aren’t trainable like that. And while I freaking LOVE them, I want rats again. I just do. So, we’ll see what happens.

I’ve loved having craploads of mice, though, and probably will again in the future. Maybe if I have a bad patch with my illness, or when I first start trying to set up a business, or if my futurepuppy (or Holly) gets ill, or whatever… I can switch to mice for a bit because they’re less maintenance.

But ultimately, I think my heart will always belong with rats.

Garcia says, “HAI!”