Playing with Baby and Volunteering

Panya is determined to snuggle inside Ricky's shirt while he plays Resident Evil 4 on the Wii. Due to the fact he thinks that she, too, is a zombie bent on eating his flesh, she has now taken residence on my shoulder as a snuggly fluff ball against my neck. I love rat heaters. =)

In other (not quite rat related) news, Ricky and I began volunteering at the Kent County Humane Society, which included socializing cats and walking adorable doggies. While the Humane Society is very active in Chestertown, I had never yet visited its location, an easy 5 minute drive on 213, until Sunday afternoon for volunteer orientation. There, we met all of the cats and dogs, and I even got to take out a malnourished Boxer named "Slim Jim," while Ricky walked an energetic Pitbull named "Diesel."


When I visited this morning, I played with cats and walked pups for a few hours, first playing with the quarantine kitties, my favorite being an adorable young male named "Farm Boy," who meowed incessantly (in a cute way) and instantly cuddled up against me.

Next, I walked my favorite pup, Slim Jim the boxer, and was delighted to see that he had acquired a glossy coat and some more flesh on his ribs (even though he was still skinny). He snorted and frolicked during our walk in the snow, but was less than happy when he discovered he was waist deep in a snow drift we stumbled upon. Here's the adorable pup:


My two favorite kitties have to be four-year old males Loki and Thor, the sweetest kitties ever. Loki is super energetic and loves weaving around your legs, while Thor loves tummy rubs. Here are their pics:

Loki


Thor


If you or someone you know is interested in adopting any of these sweeties, please visit the Kent County Humane Society website. They all deserve loving homes!

Playtime on a Snow Day

Over Sunday night Chestertown received almost a foot of snow, ensuring that Ricky and I would not leave the apartment on Monday, instead opting to snuggle with rats (and procrastinate on papers) for the remainder of the day. Introductions with Panya and the girls went smoothly - meaning Pumpkin did not try her annoying humping dominance behavior on the baby. Her and the older girls sniffed and groomed, and now her and Luffy are sharing a cage and cuddling in the cuddle cup on top of the igloo in Luff's cage. Strangely enough, even though she is only around 2 months old, she is already bigger than four month old Luffy. Good thing Luff doesn't realize how small she is. A few minutes ago she pounced on Mimi and demanded a toppling battle (which Mimi of course one, being twice her size).

We also finally brought in the humidifier, resulting in less sneezy rats who have been curling up in the corners of their cages where the majority of steam floats up to create fog on the windows. Pumpkin loves jutting her nose in between the bars and snorting as much as she can, resulting in her being closer to the door of the cage and more playtime. Bridget has been hiding in the hammock-turned-cage-liner, making it a very lumpy lining. She now emerges only to sniff at steam, chow down on grapes, and demand the occasional attention.

Playtime is good for the ratties. =)

Baby!

(Finally I have the time to post this.)

On Sunday, Ricky and I traveled over the bridge to Pasadena to pick up little Panya. Even though the night before, we attended WAC's Birthday Ball, a fete of great proportions in which we and our friends danced badly and watched drunk people make bad decisions, as well as taking silly pictures beforehand, we still managed to get there at a pretty early hour.


Ricky's gonna kill me for this. =)

Okay, no more human pictures. We, after all, are subservient to this new adorable fluffball:



















They're a little blurry (still frames from video), but still cute. =)

Diana at BSS is so nice and produces beautiful babies, so Ricky's mom has decided to get (or for us to pretend to get her) two babies from BSS. Happiness!

Waiting and waiting

This week has literally been insane for me and Ricky. With tests, essays, and applications of sorts due, at Wednesday we are very, very tired. In order to keep me from sleeping through all of my classes, Ricky has lately gotten into the habit of putting Peaches or the twins on top of me in the morning, which this morning had the opposite effect of me curling up with the ratties and promptly falling back asleep. Oh well.

What really has me excited, though, is the fact that this weekend we'll be picking up little Panya from BSS. After weeks of waiting, this is finally it. We also changed our BHR reservation from the Justin/Taylor litter, as she had a false pregnancy, to the Chevy/Quest litter. I also made a hopeful reservation on the Stewie/Skyye litter, as I prefer the dumbos and Ricky prefers standards, but there will be no guarantee for babies from that litter because breeders are getting first choice.

A few weeks ago I took extensive video/pictures of all of the girls, so I hope to take the time today and upload them so I can post a few things. There are currently no pictures of Bridget and no fantastic pics of Luffy or Pumpkin (oops).

Weird/cute behavoir side note: 1. The meeces have begun nesting in the hamster potty on the second story of their house. Chloe likes to stick her head out and rest her chin on the side like a puppy. 2. Bridget is obsessed with the demented sushi fabric cube I made over the break. She rarely leaves it now unless we determine she needs playtime. 3. Pumpkin is getting...nicer? She doesn't mind a few cuddles now and then.

And, of course, the twins are up to their usual "Give-me-that-treat-oh-now-I-lost-that-treat-can-I-please-have-another?" routine. It's like a house full of manipulative adorable puppies. =)

Valentine Rat

Yesterday, Ricky and I had a wonderful Valentine's Day, full of sushi and good movies. Around 11, I received an email from Blue Stone Siamese, a rattery specializing in Siamese rats in Glen Burnie, MD (right next to Ricky's hometown of Pasadena). We stumbled across the website about a month ago, and soon become interested in getting a companion for Luffy from the rattery. Luckily, she had two females still available from a recent litter, Panya, a Siamese rex, and Shai-Nefer, a standard Siamese. I immediately fell for the rex and got myself on the waiting list. However, there were a few complications in adopting Panya and also a rattie from BHR (Blue Heaven Rattery) that went something like this:

1. BHR had first dibs on the rex if she was a blue point Siamese, so I had to wait and see if they would take her first. Meanwhile -
2. I was also on the waiting list for BHR's Justin/Taylor litter, hoping to get an American Blue girl. But -
3. Taylor was a week late, meaning a. very few babies or b. a false pregnancy, so while I straightened out the details on that
4. I waited to see what Panya's coloring would look like, eventually leading to
5. The email last night finally telling me she was available.

Yay! The world of ratteries.

If you would like to see baby Panya, or are interested in adopting from a future litter (which include Siamese dumbos as well) check out BSS's Myspace. If you're into blues, I would recommend looking at Blue Heaven Rattery's website.

And, as a plug for adopting rescues, SNR House of Rats (where we got Mimi and Xing Xing from) just got in a TON of adorable rescue babies. Check out their myspace as well.

Meeeeeces

While most of my time is spent entertaining the rats, I do try and make the time every day to spend time with the three Project Runway meeces: Chloe, Leanne, and Sweet P. As they are all around 5-6 months at this time, I thought I'd post some pictures to commemorate their half-year birthdays. Happy birthday babies! (All of these pictures were taken when they were around 1-2 months old by my friend Insley and her wonderful high speed camera.)

Chloe:
Peekaboo!

So tiny.

Tubey.

Peering over the edge.


Leanne:
Even tinier.

More tubey!

Sniff sniff.

Sweet P:
Eh?

Meece attack!

Fin.

Rats Lovers in a Panera Bread

Sunday afternoon, Ricky and I adventured into Baltimore for our first Baltimore Rat Meetup monthly meeting. After the initial awkardness of walking up to complete strangers and asking "Is this is rat meeting?", we settled down with four other people for a three hour discussion of anything (and everything) rat.

Danielle, the meetup organizer and her friend Julie brought books by Debbie Ducommun, also known as the "Rat Lady," including Rats and The Complete Guide to Rat Training (both of which we already owned), along with some adorable snuggle scarves for sale which, not possessing one, we immediately snatched up. Much of the initial talk focused on the World of Pets Expo held a few weekends ago, and introducing all of our ratties. I brought my video camera and played some clips I had taken the previous evening. Along with talking about the rats themselves - not being there themselves we had to provide a personality overview - we discussed breeders, rescues, and rattie tips.

As I could spend all day recapping the lengthy conversations, here are a few highlights:

- Discussing favorite type of rats (dumbo, standard, hooded, etc.)
- Pros and Cons of female and male rats, and male genitalia (Ricky and I seemed the only ones squeamish about their gigantic balls. They're huge. Ew.)
- Vet Care
- The life and death of each individual rat

Needless to say, Ricky and I left ridiculously excited about the next meeting and very much wanting to go play with the girls.

We also realized that compared to some rat owners, we are very, very normal. When discussing genetics with my fellow rat lovers in the library, I receive plenty of weird looks from my friends. When someone is discussing the aesthetic appeal of intact male rats, I'm the one who is (slightly) weirded out.

Weird topics and all, I cannot emphasize how much ridiculous and nerdy fun we had. You probably could've let me loose at the Faerie Festival and I would't have had as much fun. And now that the extent of my dorkiness is revealed, here's some info about the meetup:

The Baltimore Rat Meetup has been running for a while, but will shortly be shutting down its meetup page simply because of the costs. If you are interested in joining, let someone know on the webpage so you can get on the email list for future meetings, or just ask me for the email.

In other news:
Still waiting on baby Panya's coloring. Her name means "mouse" in Egyptian, which I find awesome. So far she looks like an adorable ruby-eyed siamese rex.
No more news on BHR Justin and Taylor's litter. Will post as soon as I know.

Happy nice weather!