The Mice Do the Maze and PETA [almost] Comes Asniffin'

Today was the mice's first time running the maze. They actually did pretty well for their first time; it took them only ten minutes total to find their way out :D No, actually I got pretty bored of them running into dead ends all the time so I blocked off all the side paths so that it was just one straight path to the end of the maze. Then I had them run it and as soon as they got to the end, I removed the mice and put them back in their cage.

I actually Googled "Mouse Maze Projects" and it came up with a few interesting articles on mouse mazes and some random bits of advice on how to successfully do them. One guy said it is nearly impossible to train the mice to run the maze unless you starve them so that they will make an attempt to get to the end of the maze where you give them food as a reward. I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea, seeing how our mice are so lazy but I think PETA would highly disapprove. Oh well, they're all a bunch of fluffheads anyways.

Speaking of PETA, I once saw a truck with the bumpersticker PETA: People Eat Tasty Animals. It was pretty funny :) Oh and next to it there were a bunch of NRA and Ducks Unlimited stickers. Another thing, the dude driving the truck was this giant woodsman-looking guy wearing camo and a giant beard, I laughed really hard.

Buuuuuut, anyways, back to mice. As everybody knows, today was really really really really really really really really HOT. The mice were in the garage, on shelf, in a stuffy little cage surrounded by gardening tools. I thought, "Ya know what, I would really hate to be a mouse right now." So I took their cage and smuggled them into the basement where it is really cold. Without telling my mom. Obviously. So, yeah, the things kids get away with these days...

They did seem happier, though, once they were out of the heat :)

Oh, and another thing about them being in the garage... our three cats, Tuffy, Trixie and Callie, kept trying to eat them...

<------especially my cat, Callie. Every morning I find her sitting on top of their cage, watching them. I think that I would find that very disturbing if I were a mouse. Bambina and Not-Named-Yet don't seem to mind, however. I was just worried that the wire lid might break someday and that would be the end of the mice...

Speaking of which, our dog Sally was also very interested in devouring our testing subjects and at one point she sat watching them run the maze while whining and licking her lips like the Big Bad Wolf Who Ate Red Riding Hood's Grandmother. So out went the dog with a, "Sorry Sally, no mice for you today and if you really are so hungry go catch yourself a rabbit." Yes, we are very kind to our animals.

The other day, my older brother saw Emille and I playing with the mice and he was like, "Ew, where did you get those?"

I was like, "From the pet store, they're for our maze."

I held one up for him to look at and he was like, "You know what, I really would love them if their tails weren't so long."

HAHAHAHA!!!! HE EVEN SAID LOVE!!!! Well, that really did catch me off guard because normally my brother hates rodents, so I just let the comment pass, labeling it as "Said-Without-Thought." Brothers really are interesting creatures...

So yeah, this is the latest new from the Project Mouse Maze Headquarters. Marie M., signing out... So short for now!!!!

-marie