“Welcome to Mouse-land!” exclaims Lisa Dennison, executive director of the New Hampshire SPCA in Stratham, as she swings open a door.
The room is filled wall-to-wall with glass tanks, each holding mice and African soft fur rats, a handsome little species. It’s one of three areas within the shelter recently modified to handle an unexpected influx: Last month, a local resident walked into the shelter looking to surrender what was initially described as about 150 rodents.
“Turned out to be over 850,” said Dennison. “And it's been just an enormous undertaking.”
Each animal had to be catalogued and named and provided with a tank and bedding. Adult females were observed for potential pregnancies, while males needed to be neutered. (Mice beget mice rather quickly — gestation is around 21 days.) The staff, meanwhile, still needed to tend to its usual stable of cats, dogs, rabbits and horses.
Shelters across New England quickly stepped up to take on some of the rodents, while others have already been adopted.
This weekend, the shelter is hoping to find forever homes for the remaining 250 or so animals.
All adoption fees are waived, and the shelter is throwing in free tanks, bedding, some starter food and even a wheel.
“They are adorable. They really are,” says Dennison. “They make great little pets.”
Morgan Pritchett is a former rat owner who swung by the shelter Friday just to look around, but wound up leaving with four new friends.
“They are like mini dogs. Like, seriously,” she says.
One concern for the shelter, initially, is that people with questionable motives may come and adopt: Snake owners.
“That is really not what we're looking for,” says Dennison. “It really is not.”
These are pets, not snacks, she says.
And for those rodents who don’t find a home this weekend, the shelter will continue to care for them.
“Our commitment to these mice is the same as it would be to our guinea pigs or our gerbils, our birds, our rabbits,” she says. “Our vision is always a safe and loving home for all animals.”
