I woke up on Saturday morning at 8am, threw on some clothes, and got my suitemate out of bed to begin the 160+ mile roundtrip drive to Wharton, MD on the Western Shore. We left around 8:30, stopping in Centreville to pick up McDonald's for breakfast and get some gas - all while I hoped that my car would start every time I turned it off. It makes me very happy still that it started up every single time. Good car.
The drive over to Wharton was pretty much uneventful, except that an SUV in front of it was an extreme "weaver" as Andi called it, constantly moving between traffic, unable to stay in one lane for too long. The Oldsmobile's first time over the Bay Bridge was filled with uneventfulness, except for more SUV drivers passing on the bridge. Never pass on the bridge. You are hundreds of feet above a large body of water. Don't do it. You will be fine going 45 mph for a few miles. Deal.
We arrived at the pick up point at nearly the exact moment as Shylah and her family, which negated any awkward waiting around or doubt about where we needed to be. Her son was sporting a pale blonde mohawk and light-up Spiderman sneakers, and insisted on being a dinosaur, attempting to chew on anyone or anything. We were introduced to a pile of wonderful ratties - fat Melanie, who had to get an e-spay not too long ago (which explained her fatness, since spayed/neutered rats have a much slower metabolism), beige double-rex Sunbeam, and beautiful masked odd-eye Seascape, who almost came home with me as well. Andi, my suitemate, immediately attached herself to Sunbeam, as Sunbeam had literally attached herself to her arm, while I cuddled as many ratties as I could.
My attention was drawn immediately to black-capped rex Momo, who inquisitively crawled all over me and licked my fingers as much as she could. Athena also caught my eye because she was much calmer than the rest of the bunch, and because I remembered having already met her relatives at the Spring Rodentfest. If you glance at her, Athena looks like a normal standard broken-hooded rat, like any rat you see at the pet store (and what many breeders, I think, don't breed for - people like exotic-looking rats). What sets her apart are her belly markings that can be seen in the pictures I've already posted. She's technically a downunder rat, which has pretty unusual markings. Shylah and her husband adopted ALL of the downunder rats at Rodentfest, and very few other breeders have downunders in their programs. I am very happy to have one as a pet.
While playing with the rats, Shylah, her husband and I had some rat talk while Andi cuddled Sunbeam. It's still amazing to me how complicated the rat world is - the backhanded comments, nasty threats, and passive aggressiveness, especially amongst breeders, is astounding. It makes me happy that I never really got involved with the "clique" breeders, as I'll call them, and instead spent my money and time on healthy, well-cared for rats. Immaturity and meanness at the expense of the well-being of rats disturbs me and makes me uncomfortable at times even participating in safer forms of rat talk such as the forums. I'd much rather talk with fellow rat people in person, which is such a rare occasion for me nowadays.
While I can't discuss everything here (as much as I'd like to) as I tend to hear multiple sides of every issue from hearing all of the viewpoints before I jump into the conversation, I have a feeling that it might get a little ugly on the rat side of things at Rodentfest. After having rat talk time, I know that I have a greater perspective on events that occurred even a year ago that confused me. People's actions that seemed nonsensical make sense now - even if that understanding brings greater shock to me.
I'm just happy that I know my girls are safe and sound and have already been spoiled by their second-mom, Andi. After Shylah and I talked up all the pros of rats on Saturday, she's thinking about adopted little Sunbeam (and someone else) if she's still around. I'm also trying to get her to got to Rodentfest with me, so I can have someone there to control my GGMR (Gotta Get More Rats) syndrome.
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