Class Pet

Right before the break, my classroom got a new pet.

I think this is a sign that I am completely insane, but just haven't realized it yet.

The science teacher on my team has a great many animals in his room... turtles, mice, scorpions, snakes, a tarantula, plus many others that are mounted and preserved. The kids love his class, since he is such an awesome teacher, plus there is always something interesting to look at while they're in his class.

Well, somehow or other, I decided I wanted a classroom pet. I figured it would be fun, and could be used as a reward for the children, teach responsibility, and so forth, and since there is nothing more helpful than a 6th grader, I wouldn't have to worry about feeding, cleaning, or really doing anything other than playing with the pet.

My first thought was a cat. I love cats, but can't have one at home, so I figured, hey, this would work!

It wouldn't work, though, because of allergies.

So then I decided that a hamster would be nice. But I had never really given it serious thought, just a sort of idle speculation on how much fun it would be to have something.

Then I noticed the science teacher never really had to clean his own cages... his students fought over the chance to do it.

Then I was chatting with him about what would become of his mice, since he was talking about how he had a female mouse who was pregnant, and he said he keep one or two as classroom pets, and the rest would become snake food. He said he never would feed pet mice to the snakes, but he would make sure no one got attached to most of the mice, which would be helped by having some mice they were allowed to make into a pet.

I said that was a great idea, and wanted a baby mouse when she had some.

He told me I could have first pick, and I set about getting ready for a baby mouse.

Since mice have a pretty short gestation period, I knew I would need a home for my new baby mouse pretty quickly. I received a free, used (and pretty dirty, ew) wire cage, and got some students to clean it up. It was ready for my new mouse.

But no babies.

And no babies.

Still no babies.

I originally decided I wanted one right after school started. But nothing was happening on the baby-mouse front. The science teacher was perplexed, and decided eventually there was something wrong with either the male or the female. He planned to put a new mouse in the cage and see what happened.

Meanwhile, I have a cage sitting in my classroom, taking up space. Every single day, some student would ask me if I had the mouse yet. Every day. This was enough to drive even the sanest of people insane.

I eventually just started answering, "Yes, I did get the mouse. Can't you see it? There in the bottom?"

This caused all students to stare at the cage, desperately trying to see the mouse.

I just shake my head.

On the Wednesday right before school got out for the holiday break, we had a parent conference which ended a little early (A MIRACLE! They almost never end early. They usually end after the bell has rung and the children are screaming the hallways, pounding on the doors to be let in.) The science teacher had to feed his snakes, quickly, since he didn't want to be doing with all the kids in the room, as they get all wound up, and since it was almost break time, they already are all wound up.

So he brought out his cage full of 20 or so mice, and his student helpers (7th graders that we had last year) come to help with the feeding. I said, "Can I have one of these?" and he said, "Sure. Just pick it out, quickly, so we can get feeding."

It's almost hard to pick just one mouse out of a bunch, knowing I'm saving one, and the rest will be eaten.

They were all identical white mice, though, so I grabbed the smallest and picked it.

Another mouse was saved, a male, to be put in the breeding cage.

So I had my mouse! She was a tiny thing (I say she, because I decided she was female, but I have a sneaking suspicion now she's male, and will show her to the science teacher when I get back to confirm...) and I had to now get her set up in her new home.

The bell was going to be ringing in less than 10 minutes.

I had no bedding, or food, or anything but a cage.

She really was adorable, though, and didn't bite me, not even once. (She still has only bitten one person, my co-teacher, and she has bitten him twice. I think his hands must have had something on them...)

Then the bell rings. I still have nothing for the mouse, but I couldn't do anything about it now.

I go and stand at my door, like I'm supposed to do, with my mouse.

Several students do not notice the mouse, since she is tiny.

Once they did, however, kids everywhere yelling about the mouse. I let everyone look but not touch. She is just a baby, after all, and hasn't really ever been held. (She was less than a month old, apparently).

The science teacher across from me offered me an aquarium for the mouse to live in, but I said I had a cage, but would let her know if I needed it.

Well, long story short, I put her in a coffee canister that had been holding rulers, which worked for awhile during my first class... until she discovered she could jump.

Then I had her moved to a box that paper had come in... until she discovered it had a slit in the side she could climb.

I put the lid to block her, but she eventually discovered the other side, which had an identical slit, which I discovered as she was running across my classroom floor.

By this time I had bedding from the science teacher, and I put some in the cage I had. She was so tiny at the bottom, and the wire openings look a little large to me... so using a bit of cookie, I lured her over to the side, where the wire had the largest opening, and she just went out, like it was a door.

Oops... my cage wasn't going to work.

I got the aquarium, put food and bedding in for her, and a wheel I scavenged from the wire cage.

Now, each new class that came in swarmed the new cage, since it was in the front of the room, and since they had heard I had finally gotten a new pet.

They didn't realize that I would be at the door, holding the mouse, as the searched the cage, looking for her.

I would tell them, "Well, look really hard. She's really small."

I really am a mean person sometimes.

I can't wait to get back to school and get the mouse all settled in, and see how it goes...

I will have to get a picture of her and post it, so you can see how cute she is... but she has already grown quite a bit. I can tell you about the naming drama. (Ms. Language Arts Lady, let's call her HAROLD! Plus all the other crazy things they wanted. It was pretty funny).

Right now, she's staying with my parents, since I can't have pets where I live (let me tell you, my parents are thrilled. They were happy to have had their last rodent a long time ago, back when I myself was in middle school, or thereabouts.)

So we'll have to see how that all turns out. My mother is spoiling her. She claims the mouse doesn't like the food I bought for her, so she gives her cookies, cheese, apples, pretzels.

Mostly cheese, though.

The mouse is going to hate going back to school, since I will feed her the stuff she doesn't like, and maybe cheese once in a blue moon.

Oh, well. The children will sympathize.