Fur Babies!

Getting ready for two new arrivals on Saturday. Two girls. Name suggestions would be very much appreciated.




The beginnings of their new house. Hooray!

Eh.

Sitting in my room, alone with the two mice. I miss rattie faces peeking through the bars, little rattie paws grabbing for treats, little rattie bruxing. The mice, instead, insist on throwing their bedding out of their cage as far as possible, littering the dresser and floor with bedding. I caught Sweet P doing it once, and, as soon as she saw me stuff some of the bedding back in, fled back in their new cuddle cup. The mice are wonderful, but I cannot trust them to roam around or snuggle in my lap or do rat things. They are mice, after all.

Scary to think it has been nearly two months without a daily rat fix, every day. Even with all of my insane business, I have decided I need rats. Really, I need them. Shylah from SNR still has some left, so I'm going to try to get down to southern Maryland this month and find me some snuggle buddies.

Along with rat deprivation comes rat drama. It's scarily everywhere, and whenever I try to log onto Goosemoose for some cute pictures, I end up reading the long threads where everyone's arguing over this breeder or another or this person or blah blah blah. Do I think it's bad that someone might have taken in too many rats and now has to rehome them? Yes. Do I think I need to spread my opinion all over a forum not labeled for opinion-giving and make them feel terrible about themselves? No. They are little creatures that cannot control their circumstances. Just help the little ratties out.

So ends the grumpy rodent-lover rant.

The Beginning of the End

Last Sunday, on August 9, I woke up to find my little Chloe still as stone, lying in the first story of the mouse house. I gently picked her up, wrapped her in some towels, and buried her beneath the bird feeder in the front yard of my parents' house. While her passing away comes as no great surprise due to her tumor, I'm afraid that it's part of the line of pet deaths that have occurred or will be occurring in the next few months.

Indiana Jones, one of the two family cats, passed away mid-July from urinary tract failure at 15 years old. Yesterday, out 14 year old cat, Joe Montana, has begun acting distressed and just this morning peed on the TV stand.

Because we will probably be getting new cats in the near future, I've decided to take a break from getting new mice at the Fall Rodentfest until I have my own established place where I know I won't have to be constantly moving them. I'm sure that moving Chloe from Chestertown to York was not the best for her, but I did not have a choice in the matter.

Which brings me to the ratties. As of a few weeks ago, I now only have visitation rights. Back when my boyfriend and I started getting more and more ratties, we decided that if anything were to happen between us, the rats would not be split up. Now that this has happened, I have not really seen much of my babies lately. Even though I technically own half of them, splitting them up (which would mean me taking Peaches, MiMi, Panya, and Luffy) would cause too much friction. I've lived with that decision that was made a long time ago. I just really miss them.

And now I hope for happier rodent times.

Ratties in Trouble

It's been forever!

After my two-week trip to Bermuda and Ricky's three-week trek across England and Ireland, we're both finally back in Chestertown. This means the ratties and meeces are back too.

Everyone is doing fine, except Chloe, who has developed a lump on her back in the past 24 hours. Ricky is keeping an eye on her. Hopefully it is benign and can be removed safely.

I have more pressing news.

Shylah, owner of SNR House of Rats, is being forced to give up all of her rats. All of them. The local Humane Society is enforcing this. While I volunteer at the Humane Society in Chestertown and greatly support the organization, I am greatly confused as to why someone who cares deeply for and cares very well for their animals should have to go through this. It seems bizarre to me, but there is nothing I or the rest of the rattie community can do about it. What we can do is be supportive - fostering, donating supplies and time for the rescue organizations that will be helping SNR in this time of great need.

If you would like to help, visit SNR's website for more information. Also, if you are interested in adopting a rat, contact Shylah and let her know so you can fill out an application. Adoption fees are $10.

I will let everyone know how this turns out. Wish everyone luck!

Gender Change?

After Ricky visited last week, he headed back to Pasadena for dinner with his family. Around 5:30PM, I received this phone call:

"Uh, hey, I think there's something going on with Noodle."

"What do you mean? Is she okay?!" <-- me thinking its cancer

"No no no, she's all right, it's just, we think she has a thingie."

"You mean..."

(Ricky's mom heard in the background) "It's a penis!"


I then went through the film I had taken of Noodle, trying to find any proof of her (him/its) anatomy that we never noticed before. For those not versed in rat anatomy, there are a few major differences between male and female rats:

• There is not much space between female rattie parts, and
  
• There is a very large space between male rattie parts, which allows for their scary (ok, I think they're scary) rat balls. Scary.
  

I have never been a huge fan of male rat genitalia, and I say this because I know people who are. After cuddling many large squishy male rats, I also can say that I rarely notice anything unusual, as they are so big nothing really sticks out.

However, when not in my hand, I can still see them. Icky.

This phone call let to a panicked review of rat anatomy and me scouring the message boards about a similar situation. Ricky reported to me that Noodle did a) have a larger-than-normal space between her female parts and b.) at least 4 nipples, which is the way you can tell immediately that a rat is female. Or so we thought.

Noodle went for her vet appointment on Saturday, and the vet told us that there was a 75% chance that Noodle was female and that there was a 25% chance of her being a he, either because she/he was very slow in developing or was younger than we thought, and because male rats can have nipples. Hooray!

So, here's to hoping.

Rattie Visitors

Ricky came up to York earlier this week, bringing with him Peaches and a molting Noodle. Peaches is still her squishy self and Noodle looks like a demented baby bird/balding hyena.

Ricky and the Noodle.



Hewwo?


Yep, I look like a demented hyena.


Grooming my skin/fur/fuzz.


How do I get back in?


Time to groom your skin fur, missy.

Later, we drove over to Lancaster to visit That Pet Place, a wonderful, independently-owned store that has the best selection of great pets and supplies I've ever seen. We went over to the small animal section and chatted for the better part of an hour or two with the workers there about everything rattie. Us and the staff there then helped inform a terrified mother and her very enthusiastic daughter about rats as pets, each of us cuddling a big squish of a male, including a russian blue dumbo english irish boy who started to groom the girl as she was holding him. After about a half-hour the mother finally reached out to the blue boy and petted him for a while, deciding that there would probably be rats in her home in the near future and that she should start getting used to them now.

Unfortunately, most of the people that came through the doors were much more excited about the baby guineau pigs (which, because I have friends who've traveled to South America, I view more as something you pick up at market than keep as a pet) who chirped incessantly the whole time we visited. When an inquisitive child went up to the rat cages, their alarmed parents would pull them back and insist that those things were certainly not the pet their child wanted. A nice hamster, instead.

Okay, hamsters are not nice.

I have only ever possessed one nice hamster named Kuzco, who acted more, now that I think about it, like a rat than a hamster, and was probably mixed with something else. There was no way that hamster was what the pet store said he was. I am still the most nervous to pick up a hamster, as, most of the time, they do not want to be picked up. Now, I'm not blaming this entirely on the hamster, as a well-bred and well-handled hamster probably likes people, but, considering that hamsters are thought of almost like a "starter pet," if I was a nice hamster and was suddenly being poked and grabbed at by small children, I would want to knaw off their fingers too.

And guineau pigs, well, they're loud. Loouuud. Chirp chirp chirpity chirp meepmeepmeepmeep. I have met very nice piggies, but I think having one would drive me a little bit crazy.

Anyway, we had a great time snuggling some squishes. What I like about That Pet Place is that, like most of the pet stores I go to, they get their animals from accidental litters and rescue cases. Five of the male rats there had a previous owner who gave them up (why I will never understand), and the other three females in there were all accidentally pregnant. All were in good health and looked like happy squishies/babies. If you would like to adopt a rattie from there, I highly recommend it, as the staff in the small pets section are all small pet (usually rat) owners and have a lot of experience. The woman working there on Tuesday evening owned a neutered male and spayed female rat, along with other small pets and birds, and was great talking to.

And here's a cute picture of the rodent-obsessed pup, Chloe. She tried to befriend the meeces one day by trying to jump up on my dresser, and the meeces tried to bite her face off. Good thing she wasn't (and couldn't) get very close. Here she is sniffing around the backyard.

Can't Get to Sleep Without the Sound of a Wheel

Although it's been only five days since I returned to York, I feel like I've been snoozing on the couch and browsing the forums for weeks. Now that the meeces have returned to hyper activity while I sleep at night in the same room rather than the room next to me, the sound of their wheel turning nonstop throughout the night, I miss my rattie babies even more. I do love the meeces a lot and play with them every day, but they're not just as interested in me as Peaches is when she cuddles next to me, or the twins who desperately want to lick my fingers for any remaining foodscraps.

Ricky reports how the girls are doing every day, and I get to talk to Peaches while she licks the phone. Hopefully, I will soon be able to see Noodle and Peach next week when Ricky visits next week.

Noodle is shedding off her fur again. I'm told that she looks like a baby bird with its feathers growing in. Cute.

Which brings me to why I should never get wrapped up in the rat forums, as they always somehow end up getting me upset. Forums, in general, tend to upset me, but when I found out about one for rats I thought that it mostly consisted of people giving sound advice and commenting on cute rat pictures.

While I read the forums every day, I rarely comment, mostly because everything that can be said has already been said on the topic, and that keeping up on a thread becomes nearly impossible when you go off to run an errand and return an hour later. By this point, the thread becomes people reiterating their opinion as strongly as possible, in the hope, I think, that their sheer persistence will convince the other person that they are, of course, right. While I have no problems with debate and good conversation (as usually that's what most of it is), when I saw a thread about the Spring Rodent Fest and a separate one about what makes a good breeder I become interested.

The first thread started off with a lot of excitement about the fest, but then the post-fest conversation turned into an accusatory hodge-podge of comments calling most of the breeders there "sketchy." When one of the ratteries I had met at the Fall fest came up, I raised an eyebrow and wondered if that person had even bothered to go up and have a conversation with the owners, as they are very nice people and very willing to talk with you about what they do and what they planned to do with the rattery. I had played with their rats previously, and all were very sweet and looked healthy. The people could afford to keep the amount of rats they owned and were very passionate about rescuing as well.

In fact, the majority, minus maybe one or two stands, were all breeders and rescues I had previously come across and talked to extensively. The woman who owns the apparently "sketchy" rattery/rescue recognized me from the Fall and we had a nice conversation. The other rattery and mousery people also recognized me and we talked for a while and handled the rats and mice.

The fact that some people feel that a decent rattery never sells their rats at a show I found interesting. If anyone had even talked to most of the people there, especially the people with more rats, they would have discovered that most of the rats there were already reserved and those people adopting had already filled out an adoption contract. Anyone observing the adoptions of the animals at the fest would probably have assumed the breeders were practically giving away their rats without any prior knowledge of the adopter, but, in reality, many people who were picking up rats (and mice for that matter) had previously filled out adoption questionnares. They then paid the adoption fee and filled out a contract there. The rats that did not already have homes were up for adoption by the attendees, but those people were also informed about rat care and asked the same questions they would have been if they had made a previous reservation. I think that meeting an adopter face-to-face and asking them questions there, allowing them to see and handle the rats, and informing them there would be the better idea.

I myself encountered many a suspicious mousery owner who questioned me about my mice and asked if I had owned mice previously etc. etc. It was a not a free give-away fest. And by claiming that none of those rattery (and, I assume, included mousery) owners are not legitimate, to me, just seems accustary, rather than informational to the those interested in adopting rodents.

Up next: Ratteries vs. Rescues
and the hybrid rattery/rescue