Ten baby jellybeans

Today was a happy day and a sad day. On Friday, Minnie gave birth to 10 hairless pink babies in her cage under my desk at work. Two of the babies appeared dead... motionless and whiter than the rest. To give the babies a better chance of survival, we moved her cage to a dark and quiet office to reduce any additional stress on Minnie. After a couple hours, we checked on Minnie and babies. None of the babies were in the nesting boxes. They the scattered outside of the boxes, and the dead babies appeared to be seperated from the live ones. By instinct, the mother will eat the dead babies to prevent attracting predators to the nest. So, to help Minnie out, John and I scooped the dead ones out of the cage. (Well, brave John did the scooping and scaredy cat Marlene held the ziploc baggie open.) We removed a total of six lifeless babies. Two of the six were half eaten. Removing the dead would allow Minnie to focus on the live remaining babies, and not on the disposal of the dead. So, at the end of the work day, Minnie had 4 babies still with her and I had 6 babies in a baggie that were going into the freezer at home.
By Friday evening, as Minnie sat next to or on top of her babies, it appeared that her instincts had kicked in. But, on Saturday morning, three of the four were motionless. I gently removed the dead from the cage and into the baggie in the freezer. So, one remained. Laying alone on its side with its legs moving, the tiny pink baby squeeked. I was tempted to take the sole survivor out of the cage but I knew it had a much better chance with its mom. On Saturday afternoon, I saw the baby laying next to a sleeping Minnie. On Sunday morning, the cage was a mess and no baby in sight. All that remained was an exhausted Minnie and the skull of the last baby.
I'm not sure how such a happy day turned into a terrible weekend so quickly. Maybe it was because Minnie was possibly a first-time mother. Maybe because she had babies with her brother. Maybe all the babies had deformaties. Maybe its just how things worked out. Maybe life is too fragile. Maybe.