More Quilted Hammocks in Progress

Here's some more quilted hammocks.



These are just the pieced tops, and I anticipate finishing them tonight.

My last set was about 8 inches square, and these are 11 1/2 inches square which makes them a more standard size for rats.

These are simpler to piece, and I used a border. In true quilting, one would have a front pieced piece, a backing and batting (aka stuffing). My hammocks will be made with the pieced front and a fleece back but no stuffing.

Typically, one would quilt the 3 layers together and then finish off the edge with binding, but these are so small, the risk of quilting in a wrinkle is minuscule, so I will be sewing the two pieces together. Turning it inside out and then quilting the finished piece.

Oh, Skip is going to grommet these. No ribbon hangers for these.

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Quilted Hammocks

I made some purty quilted hammocks.




Here's the hammock on a grid showing its size. This is a wee hammock properly sized for a mouse, but my rats enjoy squeezing several into it.


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Rat Laundry

Doctor is becoming quite a jumper. Today,he leaped from the cage door to a cabinet. He was about 4 feet off the ground and leaped 1.5 feet.

Later, Skip let him rappel into the rat laundry basket. He leaped about 4 feet down into the basket.




This was a particularly difficult photo because Doctor was out of the laundry basket in seconds.

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Letterboxing

We've been out letterboxing a few times, now that Spring has sprung.
Skip, the human, is replacing the letterbox as Bittle looks on. Bittle and I are sitting on a rock that is on the cliff's edge.

This is the rock.

This is the view. The cliff looks truncated in the photo. We had to hike a very very steep trail to get there.

What is letterboxing? Essentially, you follow a set of clues to a destination where you will find a "box" (letterbox) hidden. Typically, inside the box will be a logbook and a stamp, often a handmade stamp. You record your visit in the logbook using your own stamp that you brought with you. You use the box's stamp to stamp your own book that you brought with you. Then, you tuck the box back in its hiding spot so another letterboxer can find it. You obtain the clues from a website.
Letterboxing is an awesome hobby. It gets us out exploring the outdoors. And, if you have heard of geocaching, it is similar, but you don't exchange items. The content of a letterbox does not change except for your addition to the logbook. Oh, and a letterbox is located by clues not a gps.
Atlasquest- a letterboxing website
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Spring 2012 Cage Setup

I'm pretty thrilled with our current cage set- up.
Upstairs.




Downstairs


I'm thinking about doing a southwestern America theme next.

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Walter and a Tomato

I handed out grape tomatoes to my mischief. They like them.



But taking pictures of rats can be challenging.



As Doctor had to investigate the camera. That is his ear. The focus is awful because he is touching the camera.




Ah, Doctor got out of the way, and here's Walter enjoying his tomato again.



What is Gwyn doing?


Stealing Walter's tomato, of course. Walter is nibbling on the crumbs, and that is Doctor's tail.

These photos were taken essentially as fast as my iphone would take them, except I did not include the several fuzzy photos of Doctor blocking the camera.

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Rose

Wowzers, I guess we have been busy. As Patches bounced back so beautifully from surgery, we noticed that Rose had a bump on her rump. Thinking it was an abscess which the vet thought it was too, Rose had an I&D aka incision and drainage. But, no pus. How bizarre that it is a bad thing that there was no pus. Instead, just tissue. Our vet closed her up after she took out as much as she could, but the mass had entwined around poor Rose's vagina, so our vet was thinking fibrosarcoma, aka cancer.

Rose bounced back faster from the surgery than even Patches, and lo and behold, the biopsy report says fibroadenoma. Rose does not have cancer. Shock.

So, now, both Patches and Rose need to return to the vet and have their operations completed. sigh.



Rose, post surgery. I do have pictures of her rump, but that's so undignified for a lady rat.

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