Pinkies!

The miracle of birth has descended upon the Koehler family, and we are the proud and slightly grossed out recipients of 14 (+/-) little baby mice!
Several weeks ago, I had the fortune of finding a Habitrail, complete with waterer, food dish, wheel, and bedding, at a local second hand store for a whopping $10. Maybe I should have seen it as a sign that folks were only too eager to dump all rodents and rodent keeping accessories, cute little plastic mushroom shaped waterer, sleeping pod, and all.
Jacob was all smiles when Jake brought home little "Vector", our female mouse #1, but with the little tiny mouse all by her lonesome in the vast spaces and tunnels of the Habitrail, Jacob thought she looked sad--so he asked if we could go back to the pet store and get her a female companion.
So the next day, Jake tromped back to the PetLand, where he acquired a really fattish looking black mouse. I remarked at how fat she was compared to little Vector-- but no one much listens to me. And boy, did she get fatter-- and fatter snd fatter and fatter until the day came when she couldn't fit into the groovy multicolored tunnels anymore to chill out with Vector. I figured it would be any day that we would find her with a (hopefully) small pile of babies under her, and of course that the rumors weren't true that she would eat them...
And today was the day-- just like I predicted. But again, no one much listens to me; women have an intuition about such things, even if it is concerning the gestation of a teeny tiny little mouse. Once it doesn't fit in the tunnel, how much longer could it be?
We came home from church and I heard some squeaking, and saw the mouse eating something gross and fleshy looking-- "ack! She's eating one of her babies!!!", I hollered, which of course brought the entire family rushing into Jacob's bedroom.
But no, apparently she was just eating the afterbirth and stimulating the pinkies to breathe. It really was too bad, tho, that the kids couldn't have seen them coming out-- I suspect there must be no finer form of psychological birth control than seeing guts and gore wriggling out the nether parts of a critter as a result of wanton sexual activity. I can't be certain just yet, but it looks like there are about 14, which is an insane number of mice to find homes for-- I don't even know 14 people who have hungry snakes. Altho Jacob did remark that he will refuse to give the mice away if the intent is purely gastronomical: "we're pro-life, mom-- remember?"
Oh yeah. I forgot.
I think I may be making a secret donation to the Salvation Army sometime soon; I'll sure miss the groovy mushroom pod thingy, tho.