PITA & friends

Or: The Rescue Gods are against us sometimes!

On June 1, 2006 a few of us saw an ad on CraigsList where somebody was giving away 16 mice for free or else he was going to throw them into his freezer while they were still alive.

We couldn't bear the thought of them freezing to death slowly and so Lisa went over there after work to pick them up. Because it was an emergency all Lisa had with her was a cardboard box but since it's just a short ride over to her place, she figured they would be ok.

Momma Mouse had different plans though and in the few minutes in the car, she chewed a hole into the box and her and four of her babies were somewhere in Lisa's car.

This was scary on two fronts:
a) The babies are the size of quarters and fast as a Lamborghinis
b) If you've ever seen Lisa's car aka The Bunny Mobile, you know it's loaded to the roof with rescue stuff she has to lug around (hay, towels, blankets, bowls, chips, cages, litter boxes, toys, food, meds, you name it, it's there.)

Lisa starts to count the little ones by putting them into a bucket and wouldn't you know it, two of the little ones are NBA stars and have a perfect 3 point jump shot! So....now there are 7 escapees her car - somewhere!

Lisa eventually managed to find 5 of them that night when they curled up in a corner and went to sleep but two were still missing.

Over the next few days, then weeks we heard that there were sightings and the food was always gone in the morning.... Getting in and out of the car was a challenge as we had to make sure that the mice are still in the car.

Then after two weeks Lisa finally managed to catch one of the escape artist - The little mouse went into the live trap.

The last one named PITA kept playing hide and seek day after day. About two weeks after the other mouse finally went into the trap, PITA made an appearence - She was in a bag of bagles having a picnic. Lisa figured "Perfect! I got you!", takes the cover from a hamster cage and puts it over the bag... Only to have PITA literally run through the bars as if it was just air. If you haven't figured it by now "PITA" stands for "Pain In The Ass".

Then finally on July 6, 2006 PITA decided to coorperate and went into the live trap. After over a month, the vacation was over! PITA and all but one male mouse have since been adopted