Family Finds Just-Born Baby Mouse Who's Only The Size Of A Coin

When a family’s cat wouldn’t stop scratching around one spot in the house, clearly interested in something there, they decided to investigate — and discovered a tiny baby mouse, barely even a day old. Unfortunately, the baby’s mother was no longer around, and the family knew that without the proper care, she probably wouldn’t make it.

They contacted the RSPCA, who came out to rescue the tiny mouse who was barely the size of a coin — which is why they named her Penny. They transferred her into the care of Pawz for Thought, who have a lot of experience caring for mice. At first, they were definitely worried because she was so young and didn’t have a mother to care for her. They initially put her in an incubator and fed her all throughout that first night with goat’s milk on a tiny makeup brush.

They knew Penny’s best chance would be to try and get another mouse to care for her. Luckily, the rescue had a mouse who had just had babies, so they decided to introduce her to Penny.

“It was really her only chance of survival,” Trish Storey of Pawz for Thought told The Dodo. “I took Penny and wrapped her in some of the nest material from the litter and then took four of the babies and placed them in the bedding with her. I put them in the nest material back into the cage, and the mother came immediately to inspect. One by one, she took her own babies back to the nest and finally took Penny.”

Everyone at the rescue was holding their breath, hoping that the mama mouse would accept Penny as one of her own — and luckily, she did. As the days went on, the mom cared for Penny the same way she did her own babies. Even though Penny was younger than her new adopted siblings, she was able to thrive, and everyone was so thrilled it worked out that way.

“We did not disturb her at all for over a week, but when we looked in, we could see Penny among the other babies,” Storey said. “Much smaller but doing well. The risk had been that the mother might reject her or that she would be pushed out by the older babies, but that had not happened.”

When Penny was first found, no one was sure if she would make it or not. Now, she doing so well thanks to her rescuers and her wonderful adoptive mama, who stepped up and gave her all the love and care she needed.