Introducing- Bittles

I've mentioned a lot about the rittles but who is Bittle. Bittle is our Catahoulan Leopard Dog who loves the rats. Her full name is Little Bit but we often call her, Bittle.

I guess I should get a picture of her with her head in it. That's Doctor, by the way, standing next to her. Oh, she's 65 pounds of doggy goodness.



Jumpy backseat driving Bittle as Bittle goes for a walk.


Bittle being a horse for Patches.




One of my favorite photos of Bittle. Sigh, I have somehow neglected to show you a pretty picture of her face.



Yes, those are Bittle's beautiful blue eyes, and one of her favorite squeaky toys. She likes them small. Having rats and dogs and letting them to play together is without a doubt risky, but it can be done depending on the dog and always with close supervision.


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Christmas Photos Finally

Oh, the rittles had a most excellent Christmas this year. The theme was traditional red/green for the top section of their cage, and Winter Wonderland for the bottom section. We'd given them a box of kleenex wrapped in tissue paper of course and that was a hit, given the glee with which they emptied and papered their home with it. There's an ice skating rink with red/green peppers and peas frozen within it in the bottom section. I had also made them Christmas shapes of dog/rat bisquits. Those disappeared like magic. Oh, and there were presents under their tree. The little origami boxes were filled with yogies, chocolate chips and a wooden block.

I am looking forward to next year's Christmas already which is kind of scary. But, it was so fun that I'm thinking about themes already.







Doctor is investigating the wrapped box of kleenex, and one of the gingerbread dog/rat bisquits is nearby.


Mabel munching on a cranberry from their popcorn garland. This is definitely going to be done again as they devoured the whole thing, and stringing popcorn garland for a cage is much easier than for a tree.


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Blogpress is back

Finally, Blogpress is back up and running. Apparently, they had a bug with the new ios, and instead of just submitting a bugfix, they submitted a whole bunch of improvements, and Apple responded by moving as slow as molasses.





So, here is Doctor snoozing in his "banana hammock." very poor joke but he IS a boy rat. Anyways, I made the hammock using a Christmas themed panel, and it really needs a tad of border to make it rat-sized.

And, if the photo is properly sized, I will be happy bloggin.


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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.