Zen News

I've called this section 'News', but really this is where I tell you random stories, remember the old times, or explain why my mice are the best in the world. This page mostly exists to entertain me when I have no litters pages to update :D Of course, if anything actually news-worthy happens, it'll go here too. The only thing that won't go here, is updates on litters being born and so forth. That goes in the litters section over yonder.

7th August 2007 : Wow. It's, uh, been a while since I updated this page, eh. In fact, it's been a while since I did anything on this website, so I apologise. I am still here, and still kicking. The last litter I had (which was still on the current litters page...) is now 7 months old. It's been a long while between litters - too long! I have a beautiful little lady ready to accept her handsome suitor, and we should be hearing the pitter-patter of teeny little mousey feet shortly. I am - as always, it seems - attempting to downsize the mousery. Or, more specifically, make it not grow any more. I have a few oldies and sickies that will be leaving us soon, to make room for the new litter, plus a baby or two from other breeders that I have my eye on. We have spanky new cages (or, tubs, to be precise) for all our mice and rats which makes cleaning a breeze, and everyone has more than enough room to run about. And that's about it, I suppose... I'll try and update this thing more frequently... maybe :D

16th June 2006: We've finally moved into a house that is actually big enough for us all, and the rats and mice have a room to themselves again - yay! Other than that, there's not a great deal of news to tell. Lily is starting to look old, so we may be saying goodbye to the beautiful girl soon :( But everyone else is well, and I still can't decide which of Aria and Samson's babies to keep because they're all so beautiful.

20th April 2006: It's been a while since updating the news, mostly because the last few months have been utterly chaotic in my life, with just about everything happening that could possible happen at the same time. The up shot is, I am now living in Newtown with my new boyfriend, and the mice are currently under the house in a sort of basement/storage area. It's not ideal, but works as a temporary measure until we can find a place with a better setup. The mice don't seem to mind, which is the important thing! there have been a few new introductions and a few sad goodbyes, a few new litters, and a few shows passed. I am sadly starting to consider leaving the show scene for a while, I'm not finding it as satisfying as I once did, and where I'm living now makes it difficult to get to. We'll see how I go, and I will definitely still be breeding for myself and for you guys!

8th November 2005: More new mice! (My boyfriend just groans when I come home with more now :P) First, the adorable Niamh, who is the granddaughter of Wicket and Duncan! Yaaaay! I'm so, so happy to have her, to continue Duncan's line. I'm also getting a girl from Magick's (their mum, Duncan's daughter) second litter. I refuse to be thwarted! Muahaha! I also got a STUNNING girl from Mountain Blue (Navaho), who we think may be lilac, but she definitely carries blue and reverse siamese. So it'll be interesting what babies she'll have in the future. She's so, so gorgeous. And lastly, another girl from Mountain Blue (though she was from a pregnant pet shop purchase, so is not pedigreed), a beautiful longcoat brindle girl with fantastic brindling, called Shanti. Welcome them! :)

11th October 2005: We have recent 3 new additions that I thought I'd introduce you to. First, the first new boy we've had in six months! His name is Mochiavelli, he's a chocolate longcoat, and is sickeningly cute. His conformation is alright - lovely ears and body, but smallish eyes and a bit of a stubby tail - but his cuteness factor is way up. I bought him from Share the Whiskers specifically to start my cinnamon line. He's currently staying with his new girlfriend, Africa! I also got his chocolate tan longcoat sister, Mirabella, who is almost as cute, with a gorgeous conformation to boot. She placed in her very first show! And finally, the stunning sable longocat, Ashling, from Blue Cheese. And this is one special mouse. I swear she's bipolar - for the first 2 or 3 days, whenever I picked her up, she was utterly frozen stiff (scared the heck out of me at first!), and no matter what I did to her (rolled on her back, poked, mussed her hair up) she simply would not move. Eventually when I got her to move, she bounced about like a spring - and no wonder, with all that energy bound up in her catatonia! She's started to even out a little bit now, and will climb into my hand if she wants to, and wanders around me and the cage with few problems. She's a gorgeous girl, and I can't wait for her to shade up so I can show her!

2nd October 2005: Since the last update, a fair bit has gone on around here. Bel and Lenore never quite recovered from their sneezes, so have moved in with the chronically sneezy Osiris after her previous companion Nova died :( Angel is happily living in the big girls' colony. I had to rehome her sister Velcro and big boy Aragorn, as my almost-always-patient boyfriend got a little annoyed at the ever-increasing number of mice and cages. The sad news; a little while ago, my beautiful Wicket developed a cancer underneath her throat and was put to sleep :( To top it off, shortly after her gorgeous son Ciaran developed the same cancer. I am stricken :( Since Wicket is my only continutation of my beloved pet line, now ending in Duncan, I've put Nedra in with him and am hoping to heck that he still knows what to do!! If she doesn't fall pregnant, I may risk it and breed Fionn, another of his sons, to an established, cancer-free line, but I'd rather avoid it if I can. At this point I'm considering having Ciaran operated on, if the tumor doesn't turn out to be too aggressive, but we'll see how we go.

26th July 2005: I seem to go in waves of purchasing mice. Last wave, I got Nedra, Ayla and Lily. Then a few months without any new mice for me. Which is good, because it means I get to know my old ones better :) But in the last couple of weeks, we've added Lenore, Bel, Angel, Velcro and Aragorn to the list. Wow, that expanded it a little! I think I'm going to have to limit my little gang soon :/ My general rule is "no new cages." I'm allowed to have as many mice as will fit in my current cages (and I'm generous with the space), but no more. But that rule only works with girls. Boys have to have their own cages! So, Aragorn has been granted the extra boy cage that used to house Spike. And of course I have temporary extra girls cages as I quarantine the newbies. And it's lucky I did, because Lenore and Velcro both have the snuffles. I'm treating them with doxy, and they're both clearing up nicely. I'm doing a cage clean tomorrow, and will try and introduce Bel and Angel into the current colony.

5th July 2005: Here's the first piece of actual news!! I have added a Mouse Cage Size Calculator to the Care section of the site. I decided to do this after years of searching on the net for a decent calculator. All the ones I found were for rats! Now, that's great for my ratties, but what about my poor reglected mooses? :P So, Katy to the rescue! Um, or something. With my limited knowledge of JavaScript and the help of a sneak preview at some other calculators' code, I have managed to piece together a working Mouse Cage Size Calculator! I need people to test it out and make sure it's not giving out ridiculous numbers (high or low). It works for all my cages, but I like to give my mice a little extra room than some people. I'd rather it stay slightly on the less-mice-per-cage side than more. The more space, and the less squashed mice in the world, the better.

4th July 2005: This is where I get to gush about Velvet :) This weekend just gone, she got Grand Champion at the Australian Rodent Fanciers of NSW Show! I'm just SO proud of her! A month ago, she got Champion, and now this. I wonder how long she can keep it up? She's only a baby still :) This show, Julie, a rat breeder from Victoria (The Mad Ratter) came up to see our show, and claimed that she didn't like mice, because they always bit her. So, Velvet comes to save the day. Though I doubt she'll go out and start breeding mice, after a few minutes cuddling my baby, she had to admit that she really was quite a nice mouse. We'll convert you all, oh yes! :D I love her so much (Velvet, not Julie!), that I can't even decide whether to breed her or not. I mean, the risk that something will go wrong is so low, but if it does... I'd just die. But how can I not make a whole litter of little Velvets? You can see my dilemma. If I ever get another mouse like Velvet, I'll be over the moon. But I'm not sure if anyone is ever going to live up to her. I lub her good.

21st June 2005: You see, I love all my mice. Some mice I love because they're beautiful, others because they're funny, or because they nibble my fingernails, or follow me around the cage... the list goes on. I love them all. But sometimes, I love one just a little bit extra. I know I shouldn't! Maybe I'm a bad mousey mummy. I shoudn't have favourites. But I do. I suppose the good thing about these particular favourites is that they're not static. That is, depending on any one mouse's mood, and also my mood, it changes around somewhat.

My boys are all so special, because I have so few, these ones were hand-picked with much deliberation. Duncan is my baby. He'll always be my baby, especially because he's two years and one month old. And still going strong. He doesn't always want to climb onto my hand for cuddles, but he'll put his front paws on me and give me a good sniff, and then demand treat after treat after treat. I spoil him. I can't help it.

Samson, Fluffy-Butt the Second (my cat Elfin gets the title) is sooo cute. There's just nothing average about him. He's in with beautiful Wicket at the moment. She didn't let him in the house for the first two days, because he was just so happy to see her he acted like a bit of a dork. But he got over it, and now they're busy making lots of scrummy babies for me :)

In my last boy cage lives Duncan's sons Ciaran and Fionn. Fionn is the most incorrigable mouse I have ever owned. If he doesn't get a ride out on my hand, he'll run round in circles up and down the cage in a mousey tantrum til he does. He's so confident and outgoing and adorable. He's also the boss of Ciaran ;) Ciaran is much like Duncan. A bit quieter, sweeter and calmer. More likely to come for a cuddle, as opposed to an excitable-excursion, but will usually only put his front paws on my hand, like his dad, and wait to be picked up :) I am still trying to find a home for Fionn, but it's harder to part with him every day he's here. One day I want to continue Duncan's line with Ciaran (who has the most stunning head you've ever seen on a mouse), and I don't want Fionn to be left out.

Ok, I've written too much... and that was just the boys! In summary, it's way too hard to choose favourites. The end :D