Valentine

So it hasn't even been two full months working at LIMR, and I've already managed to adopt a mouse as my personal pet. :)

We don't need his genotype anyway, and I isolated him from his cage mate about a week ago because his cage mate was beating up on him- there was a huge open sore on Valentine's back. Honestly, I wasn't sure if he would live, but I didn't have the heart to cull him either. So I isolated him in a cage by himself and decided to see how he fared; if it looked like he was really in pain, I would have put him down. For the first two days or so, he stayed in one corner of the cage and didn't move around much. But Val's a fighter, cause he lived and his wound is healing. I gave him the name Valentine because the wound is all pink, and it's in the shape of a heart. Seriously! I'm not the only one who noticed that. He's a black mouse too, so the pink skin showing really stands out. But he is adorable and so soft and sweet. He just curls up in my hand like he could stay there forever. I even brought him a treat today! I'm glad I kept him. :)

This is an out of focus picture of his wound, because I didn't want to gross anyone out too much. :) It looks less like a heart than it originally did, because it's healing, but even now you can kind of see it.