RIP Danger Mouse

Stella is a girl who loves all living things. She will sit and hold a newborn baby for hours, get excited over petting a dog, be sad when she finds a dead roly poly in the basement. Today was especially tough on her because her pet mouse, Danger Mouse, passed away.

Danger Mouse and Penfold were given to us by fellow homeschoolers who needed to pare down their pet collection. I acquired the two little mice as birthday presents, in advance, for the girls. They saw the pictures online before the mice arrived and Stella immediately liked the white and gray one, Sandis the black with white one. As it turned out, Danger Mouse was the one Stella chose.

Danger Mouse was the perfect little pet for Stella. When Stella opened the cage, Danger would run to the open cage door and climb right out on Stella's hand. She would perch on Stella's glasses and tuck herself under Stella's collars. Danger Mouse and Stella were bosom buddies.

This morning, Stella came running in to my room frantic because Danger Mouse was "chattering her teeth and pushing her head against my hand and now her legs won't work!" Stella was sobbing hysterically, trying to get dressed so we could go to the vet, yelling at me to call a vet and holding poor little Danger Mouse.

I started calling vets. First one, doesn't do little pets, try these. Tried one of those, they aren't in on Saturday. Tried another, vet on duty doesn't do mice, try this one. That one said, well, we'll look at her but we don't really do that and it will be $120 minimum, try this one. That one was the winner.

AspenWing in Loveland was able to get her in for an appointment in 40min. They cautioned that if it was a stroke or seizures, as I thought, that they could give her medicine and IV fluids, but there might not be much they could do. I assured them that I knew there wasn't a whole lot they could do but Stella was so upset I wanted the mouse to see the vet. We got ready and headed over with Danger Mouse, who was regaining some movement in her legs. I thought maybe she would pull through. Then, while sitting in the waiting room, Danger had another seizure, much larger than the first. The assistant rushed her back but before the vet could even look at her, she had passed away.

The vet said there was nothing else we could have done, nothing we did caused this, it just happens sometimes. They brought her back in a little box with a rag in it, all tucked in like a bed. They also made Stella a little heart ornament with "Danger Mouse" and her foot prints on it. They didn't charge us a cent.

None of this was any consolation to Stella who sobbed uncontrollably for at least an hour. She was pretty sad a long time after, only recently being able to talk and laugh about things like normal. She said some pretty profound things today such as, "It only hurts the one who's dying for a little while and then they are dead, but the people who are left hurt for a long, long time" and "My life will never be the same as it was before Danger Mouse was in it." There was also talk of how long before the spirit leaves a body and what color the spirit might be (for the record, for Danger Mouse, it is two minutes and pink.)

I'm sure we will have a new mouse soon, as Penfold will need a friend. The new one won't be Danger Mouse, but I'm sure she will be very loved.