Mouse control

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

The mice have arrived. After two months plus of listening to my daughters dreaming up a way to be mice owners (an obsession while staying in Aberdeen where they discussed names and along miles of Hadrian's Wall where they thought up taming tactics), and seeing them get better on the web as they research how to find, feed and breed from mice we now have two.

Nell picked out Caledonia - 12 weeks and a skewbald colour.
Lola’s choice is Chilly - about 8 weeks and a dove grey colour (possibly known in fancy mice circles as chinchilla).

“They’re a lot smaller than I thought they would be,” said Lola gazing in awe at the mice. She’s seen plenty of run over rats and other mammals on her travels this summer but until then hadn’t actually seen a live mouse. “I thought they’d be 10cm not including the tail,” she says but fortunately not in a disappointed way.

Both mice are does (the bucks apparently smell but I’d say that these two lovelies do a bit too) and seem to be settling in well.

They are surprisingly relaxing to watch: we all sat around them at lunch time looking at them sniffing, climbing, pooing, munching and nesting. But I think the girls have plans to tame them so that they can let them run all over their arms. As pets go mice seem reasonably sustainable, don’t need walking and are pretty quiet. It’s a shame they have to live in a horrible, small, plastic barred cage but in my mum’s house this is the only safe place from Clio the cat.