So, today, we went to New York City to see Christmas decorations. The windows were lovely, and of course, I loved the rodent themed ones.

Oh my goodness. My last post's pictures are humongous. Now, I need to figure out how to fix that. So, today we took Mabel and Doctor to the Transfer Station to drop off our trash. One of these days, I'm going to need to get a good set of pictures documenting how well the rats travel in the car. Anyways, we brought Doctor because he's a veteran car traveller. He has his favorite spots including riding on the seat's headrest and riding in the rat holder. The rat holder is an amazingly versatile part of the car, not only can it hold a rat securely.

But, the rat holder can hold 2 cups snugly, and in a pinch, it stands in for a litter box. Please note the napkin in the rat holder not only does it cushion the rat's paws but it facilitates clean up. So, while at the transfer station aka dump, we found a neat little basket in the freebies. And, here's Doctor modeling the basket. His personality really does not come through in pictures. He's an absolute ham.

I didn't get a picture of it, but we put both Mabel and Doctor in the basket on the way back to the car, and of course, Mabel immediately started peeing which is convincing me that the girl rats really are both pee and poop trained. They do not pee or poop on their humans. In future posts during this Christmas season, I hope to share some of our efforts to decorate the rat's cage for Christmas. I've been making them origami boxes for presents and plan to tuck wooden blocks and Yogies into them.

I keeping taking breaks from blogging, and my excuse is that Blogger keeps eating my posts which is extremely irritating. I am seriously considering composing outside Blogger and pasting into Blogger. It's just so frustrating to lose all that I have typed because apparently Blogger got the desire to munch on what I typed. Anyways, we adopted three wonderful sweet rats from Mainely Rat Rescue. Doctor #2 is a black self with standard ears. He is one of the babies from the Elliott, Maine hoarding rescue.

Getting a good picture of Doctor is quite difficult. And, now for the the two girls... Jumpy is a black hooded who is over a year old and is a rehomed rat. Mabel is an Agouti Rex, possibly double rex. She is also a baby from the Elliott, Maine hoard.

This is Walter, pronounced, "WALT TERRRR" , emphasizing both syllables. (sorry for the bit of blur, rat photography is interminably blurry. They just don't understand, please hold still.)

He and another rat named "The Doctor" joined my mischief of rats several months ago. Unfortunately, Doctor died of pneumonia, and this Sunday, we will be going to a Mainely Rat Rescue adoption event in Rhode Island, hopefully to pick up 2 neutered boys to join our mischief.

All well wishes are appreciated, as adding boys to a mischief can be risky. Male rats can be more territorial and can have more issues with introductions, but we succeeded with our last introduction.

Rats are short lived and prone to illnesses. We have lost 2 rats to pneumonia in the 2 years that we have had rats. Patches are eldest will likely die in the upcoming year just from old age. Rats are like little flames. They burn brightly, but sadly extinguish quickly. However, the joy they give while they burn through their lives overflows one cup. So, yes, we are off to the rescue to hopefully adopt a couple of boys.

Curly

I looked at my last post and thought I was so cavalier about Curly's death. The reality is that the loss of Curly has been horrible. And, well, likely was part of the reason it's been so long since I've blogged. I just couldn't stomach writing about her death.

I came home one day and Curly was struggling to breathe. I drove her to the emergency vet, but she didn't survive the night despite antibiotics and oxygen. It was our introduction to how fast a rat can be lost. We were lucky and the other rats never even coughed.

Curly was one of our first, and she was such a strong personality, bossy and threw her naked butt around a lot. We now have 7 rats, not one of which is hairless. It may be a long while before we have another hairless. Curly's life though brief will be remembered.


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Back from hiatus

Lots have happened.

Here's the quick update:
7 rats
Patches, Gwynneth, Rose, Martha, Lily, and the two new boys, Doctor and Walter. Curly, sigh, died suddenly of a respiratory tract infection. We waited with great fear during the quarantine but no one else got sick.

Doctor and Walter are our newest additions, and they are living in our small cage until 3 weeks after their neuters, as the plan is for them to join the girls but we don't want babies. All of the girls are eager to meet the boys, so we expect the integration of all of them to go well.

And, what's the picture? That's Patches peeking her head out of a favorite toy: a shoe box filled with a whole bunch of tissue paper.


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