Chapter XXXIV: Part IV: Domestic Pets (5)

It is possible to elevate the character of a kindly-treated pet to such a degree, that it will voluntarily forsake the society of its own kind for that of man, and even if granted its liberty, will refuse to avail itself of the gift, and return to the protection of the sheltering hand. By humane and sympathetic treatment a pet may be made happier than in its native state, and be saved many pangs of suffering by a kindly owner. All animals when wild have to pass through a sort of schooling, and get sadly knocked about and bullied by their elders before they attain maturity and strength to become bullies in their turn; but if reared in gracious captivity, they will escape the ordeal through which they must have passed.

Lastly, let the owner remember that his little favourite is wholly dependent on him for every necessary and comfort of life, and that it will be a piece of arrant cruelty--or, at all events, of inexcusable thoughtlessness--to permit the captive to feel the pangs of hunger or thirst, or to suffer the discomfort of an unclean home.

WHITE MICE.

The mouse is a lively little animal, and one of the most timid, although he eats in the trap as soon as he is caught. The brown mouse can very rarely be tamed; but white mice are bred and brought up in a state of domestication, and the young fancier can obtain a pair for a shilling at any of the fanciers. The female has frequently six or eight broods in a year, but at these times she must be separated from the buck, who very frequently destroys the young ones.

Cages for white mice may be easily purchased by those who _have the money_--mark that--and you may indulge yourselves, my young friends, to any tune, from the sweet jingle of sixpence to the respectable clink of a golden sovereign. The best kind of cage is that like a squirrel’s, but on a small scale.

Some boys who have ingenuity will construct pretty little houses for their white mice. We remember seeing one on which there was a mill, by which the white mice, very much like millers in their looks, ground their own corn by means of a turnabout fixed on a post of the dormitory, and it was very amusing to see the little creatures come out of the chimney and look about as unlike chimney-sweeps as white is to black.

The principal food for white mice is bread-and-milk, oatmeal grits, and any other common food, except cheese, which is bad for them. They should be kept particularly clean, and their cages ought to be arranged, and beds made up every day, or they will give out a most disagreeable smell.

Piebald mice are sometimes produced by a union of the common field-mouse with a white mouse: there are also some expensive varieties, such as the black mouse, and the black and white mouse, which the young gentlemen who have more money than wit may purchase for a few shillings each; but we say sixpence: sixpence apiece is enough for any pets of this kind.