Meryl

Meryl eating antibiotic ice cream
Shortly after Tomoyo died a few weeks ago, we noticed that Meryl was starting to have a bit of trouble breathing. We immediately started feeding her antibiotic-laced ice cream (which she happily ate; a good sign) and other high-calorie food, and after about a week on the antibiotics it looked like she was on the mend. Then, on Wednesday afternoon (as I was preparing for my big talk) my SO found Meryl dead in her cage. She had seemed fine on Tuesday evening, and we had even been pondering taking her off of the antibiotics.


Meryl, in a picture taken back in June.
As with Rem, Athos, Genie, and Tomoyo, Meryl was a great mouse: calm, curious, and always willing to explore, especially if it meant getting a sunflower seed or peanut.

Meryl was the last surviving female mouse from Rem's litter. We'd had the girls' cages sitting prominently on a shelf in our living room, and though we both knew that we should clean out the cages and put them away, neither of us wanted to. But we finally did it this afternoon; the room feels empty now.

[On a more personal note, I hate writing these posts. May Vash and D'Artagnan live forever.]