yechave
Aug 7th, 2008, 9:40 am
This started as a story about yesterday, which due to my ignorance of not being able to link the pics, is now a few days old.
Our propane company was here to check our fuel tanks due to two valve body failures and what I expected was contamination in the fuel tank, which evidently there is.
Much to our surprise upon opening the valve cover we discovered a newly born family of mice still attached to the mother. Probably just born that day.
Eddie held them in place while I found a tiny box to put them all in, and then transferred them to another very large box, closed the lid and put a concrete block on top of that.
I went back to stuff some bedding and water in the box an hour or two later and discovered the mother had eaten her way out the top of the box. I thought that was going to be it for these new born mice.
Figuring they were going to die anyway, I then tried to feed the babies to two of our cats later that night, and they wanted nothing to do with them.
So, I put them back outside (having moved them twice already), inside a paper bag with bedding and water, inside the large box, on top of a garbage can, covered with a lid, and then the concrete block on top of that. I located it near the tank, where they came from. Never did I imagine they would not be there the next day.
When I went out to check on these guys this AM, they were all gone. WOW!
The only explanation is the mother came back. I have no idea how she would have made it back into the box on top of the garbage can! That she was able to manage to get each one of these out of the box (should have taken a pic so you could see just how big it was) through the very tiny hole she made when she first got out. It was quite a drop from the top of the box, and still can't wrap my mind around being able to get them back out, over the 500 gal fuel tank and then to a safe area to nest, is just amazing.
While I am most annoyed at not being able to figure out how to create my own damn picture links for the post, I felt I owed it to these guys to forward their incredible story of survival.
What a video that would have made showing how that escape was pulled off.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics, which would not have been possible without the help from Neil to manage to forward the appropriate links for me to post them. Thanks Neil!
~;^/
http://lh5.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjgVQBbqDI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/wqVnjeUh45E/IMGP1508%20%282%29.jpg?imgmax=512
http://lh5.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjga01RbxI/AAAAAAAAAZY/8TWaO8JlwTw/IMGP1507.jpg?imgmax=512
http://lh4.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjggGYnlpI/AAAAAAAAAZg/3Y6r8uRgrfw/IMGP1504.jpg?imgmax=512
http://lh4.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjgjNoL0xI/AAAAAAAAAZo/4FQIFskB6Ag/IMGP1507%20%282%29.jpg?imgmax=512
Our propane company was here to check our fuel tanks due to two valve body failures and what I expected was contamination in the fuel tank, which evidently there is.
Much to our surprise upon opening the valve cover we discovered a newly born family of mice still attached to the mother. Probably just born that day.
Eddie held them in place while I found a tiny box to put them all in, and then transferred them to another very large box, closed the lid and put a concrete block on top of that.
I went back to stuff some bedding and water in the box an hour or two later and discovered the mother had eaten her way out the top of the box. I thought that was going to be it for these new born mice.
Figuring they were going to die anyway, I then tried to feed the babies to two of our cats later that night, and they wanted nothing to do with them.
So, I put them back outside (having moved them twice already), inside a paper bag with bedding and water, inside the large box, on top of a garbage can, covered with a lid, and then the concrete block on top of that. I located it near the tank, where they came from. Never did I imagine they would not be there the next day.
When I went out to check on these guys this AM, they were all gone. WOW!
The only explanation is the mother came back. I have no idea how she would have made it back into the box on top of the garbage can! That she was able to manage to get each one of these out of the box (should have taken a pic so you could see just how big it was) through the very tiny hole she made when she first got out. It was quite a drop from the top of the box, and still can't wrap my mind around being able to get them back out, over the 500 gal fuel tank and then to a safe area to nest, is just amazing.
While I am most annoyed at not being able to figure out how to create my own damn picture links for the post, I felt I owed it to these guys to forward their incredible story of survival.
What a video that would have made showing how that escape was pulled off.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics, which would not have been possible without the help from Neil to manage to forward the appropriate links for me to post them. Thanks Neil!
~;^/
http://lh5.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjgVQBbqDI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/wqVnjeUh45E/IMGP1508%20%282%29.jpg?imgmax=512
http://lh5.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjga01RbxI/AAAAAAAAAZY/8TWaO8JlwTw/IMGP1507.jpg?imgmax=512
http://lh4.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjggGYnlpI/AAAAAAAAAZg/3Y6r8uRgrfw/IMGP1504.jpg?imgmax=512
http://lh4.ggpht.com/ltnelly4you/SJjgjNoL0xI/AAAAAAAAAZo/4FQIFskB6Ag/IMGP1507%20%282%29.jpg?imgmax=512