I want to rescue mice

Question
Natasha,
I recently found a single baby house mouse [with fur, eyes still closed] in the middle of my barn.  He was almost killed by a horse.  I scooped him up but couldn't for the life of me find any nest. I have no idea why he out there alone 4 or more feet from any wall.  The owner wanted to kill it and has poison traps all around.  Maybe not the best idea, but I took him home and followed all your recommendations with feeding.  He lived many days [eyes started to open] and fed well, was active, and loved to be held [which I did for hours and hours a day-at work and during feedings at night] and I thought I had saved him, but one morning, I found him dead. Literally broke my heart. He had seemed fine at the 3am feeding.
Are they really that hard to save or did I fail?  I am very sorry.
Now all I want to do is help save other orphans.  Do you know if there are any foster or wild mouse rescues in the Philadelphia area?  I would love to have a happy ending as this failure made me so sad.  Many thanks, Emmy

Answer
Dear Emmy,

What a wonderful thing you want to do!  I often have people ask about mouse rescue and it's hard to find places that will take mice.

Here are two sites specifically about deer mice as pets.  You may be able to find adoption information here:

http://mouseranch.com/main.html

http://deermouse.sitemouse.com/

Here is a search of your area (Philadelphia) for adoptable mice on Petfinder.com:

http://www.petfinder.com/search/search.cgi?breed=mouse&tmpl=&preview=&animal=Sma...

The Fun Mouse has a forum to post want ads and find rescue mice:

http://forum.thefunmouse.com/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=49a920b553b71d1f909c6826beb59...

The RMCA also has adoption info:

http://www.rmca.org/Rescue/orphans/

You might find yourself on overload!  Remember, boys need their own cages but girls can live together.  I always recommend at least 3 girls, so when one dies there isn't a broken-hearted mouse left.  

Thank you for caring!

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha