Mickey was a male mouse I adopted from Petco exactly a year from today. I wrote this a while back, but have just finally decided to post it. Mickey was extremely shy, and terrified of being touched, but he was adorable and I was in love with him completely. I had tamed him to the point he would crawl on me while we played in the bathtub, something we did every day for a few hours.
Mickey more than likely had a respiratory infection. According to the internet, these were very hard to treat in meeces. Because Mickey was still on the Petco 30 day trial period, I grudgingly took him there so they could treat him at their vet, as I was going on vacation the same week, and well, I couldn't treat him myself if I was on vacation.
The manager said they would take him to the vet on Monday (it was Friday) I was sad to leave him with those crazy people, who claimed he was probably sick because I was not feeding him one of their 20% protein block diets (very bad by the way, mice shouldn't have more than like 12-14% protein or they can get hot spots).
My vacation ended. I waited impatiently, calling every other day to see how he was doing. "much better" they said "no more sneezing" they said.
I was so excited to go and pick Mickey up after the excruciatingly long two week period. He was a lot bigger than when I had dropped him off. I payed the $4 re-adoption fee. I got into my mom's car. "sneeze" "sneeze" went Mickey. I looked at him in horror. Two weeks of medication hadn't worked in the least.
I kept Mickey for two more weeks, hoping the sneezing would recede or that he wouldn't start rattling again. Unfortunately he just got worse. He was more distant with me, he wouldn't climb on me like he had before when I played with him in the bath tub. He started scratching a lot, laying in weird places all sprawled out, and loosing fur around his eyes.
It was an extremely difficult decision to give up my little man, but after hard thought, I took him back to Petco with promises from the store that they would take him back to the vet.
"Do you want him back once he's treated?" asked the lady at the counter.
"No, no, not this time," said I looking sadly at the mouse as my heart melted into a lump on the floor.
Although Mickey was a terrible experience, I am still glad I had him for the short time I did. If I didn't, I would have never gotten Dapper. I researched so much about respiratory infections that I knew enough to take the risk when I saw that pitiful rat in the cardboard box.
Wherever you are Mickey, I hope you're still alive and doing well out there somewhere in the world.
Mickey's pirate themed 20 gallon tank.
