Rattitude

Ezri is such a camera hog. She always put herself in front of Luka. If she were a human kid you’d hear her saying, “Look at me mom! Look at me! Look at me! Lookatmelookatmelookatme!”

Luka has another eye infection. They are getting more frequent. My poor hairless girl.

Last night I had Ezri out and decided to cut some apple for her. Since she is the calm and trustworthy one I just sat her down on the counter.

She found lots of things to explore since I had a plastic bag of trash on the counter she kept climbing in and exploring.

She also kept wandering toward the sink, and I’d say, “You don’t want to go over there” and she’d turn around back toward the sound of my voice and go play in the trash again.

The sink was full of dirty dishes since I hadn’t washed them yet, and part of those dishes was a pot that my hubby had cooked potatoes in for his lunch. He had left the water in there, and half a potato. I feed the girls potatoes sometimes, and I’m sure Ezri was attracted to the smell of food.

Well, I’m sure you all know where this is going….

I’m cutting up the apple and I hear a clink as she jumped into the sink, then a SPLOOSH as she jumped into the pot.

I look, and Ezri is in the pot with the half a potato looking rather pitiful and seeming to say, “Get me out of here!”

I scooped her up. She’s all wet and has bits of potato stuck to her. Laughing like an idiot, I dried her off with a dishtowel.

“I told you you didn’t want to go over there” I told her. “Now Luka’s gonna try to eat you cause you taste like tater!”

I got her clean and put her back in with her sister and plenty of apple, and she promptly went into a grooming frenzy.

In hindsight I really wish I had gotten some pictures of it.

I’ve long been a fan of Neopets, with only the complaint that they have no rat based pets. Well, they do have the Mutant Xweetok, but it it’s
based on the skeezy rat image that I don’t like.

Kiropets does have a cute rat based pet called a Chuchunga. I adopted this fellow there. I called him Meezer. I’ve never actually PLAYED there though, since I do spend most of my time on neopets.

I would LOVE to know of more virtual rat or virtual mice you can “adopt” as pets.

If you know of such a thing PLEASE e-mail it to me at mail4rats@gmail.com or even leave it in the comments section here.

Sorry its been so long since I’ve updated.

We’ve been given another sparkly award! Back on August 8th The Cat/Dog Log awarded us with the Brilliant Weblog Award.

(Sorry it took to long to get acknowledged. It got stuck in my spam comments for some reason)

The award comes with these simple rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

I have a hard time passing along these awards. I read so many great blogs, and I want to make sure someone gets it who hasn’t gotten it a million times already.

I’m not sure if I managed that or not but I give this award to:

1. The Adventures of Brownie
2. Things I’m Grateful For
3. Rat in a Box
4. The Art of the Illustrated Rat
5. WebKittyn Warbles
6. Screw Bronze!
7. Lil’ Blog of Horrors

The winner of the caption contest last Raturday was Brownie with this one:

Brownie, are you on entrecard? If so, let me know so I can send you the 500 EC credits.

Did you know that rats think people are dirty?

The very first thing my girls do after I’ve been playing with them is sit down and groom themselves. They pay special attention to their faces, washing their nose and ears and whiskers.

I never knew I was so dirty. Who would have figured.

Speaking of ears and whiskers….

I was holding Ezri the other night, and as she burried her face in my armpit (no wonder she feels the need to bath after playtime) she dug her back feet into my arm and I noticed something….

Ezri is missing half of a toe on one of her back feet.

I feel like such a bad mommy because I never noticed it before. I wonder, has she been like that since she was a baby? Did she loose it in a fight with her sisters when she was older. Did she get tangled in her hammock and rip it off? If it happened after I had her, why did I not notice the wound.

I’ll never know for sure if she’s always been missing half a toe or not but now I’ll be looking at their feet constantly, just like I’m always examining their bellys for lumps that shoudln’t be there.

Meanwhile, I took her out while my MIL was here last night. My MIL hates my rats…won’t even feed them when we’re not home. I wanted to show her Ezri’s half a toe.

Not only did she get close enough to look, she talked to Ezri. BABY TALKED to Ezri! And said she had never noticed how cute her ears were before.

Are we finally winning her over?

—–

Don’t forget to leave a caption on the picture at the end of THIS POST for a chance to win 500 EC credits.

Also, feel free to connect to Rattitude on Myspace.

I thought it might interest everyone to know that I have more pets than just rats. In fact, Luka and Ezri have cats, dogs and a fish as siblings.

I feel like I should share them with you to let all my kitty, doggie and birdie readers know that I don’t hate non-rats and I don’t think rats are better than you. -grin-

Living in the house with Luka and Ezri are Boomer and Rusty

Boomer is a Chocolate Labrador. He would have been AKC registered, had we bothered to send in his papers. We wanted the puppy though, not the papers. Boomer was supposed to be MY dog, but bonded better with my hubby.

Rusty is a Chow/Golden retreiver mix. He was a street rescue. We first tried to find his family, then when nobody came foward we were just going to foster him instead until we could find him a forever home. I called him “Little Red Dog” cause I didn’t want to give him a name. When hubby started calling him Rusty, I knew he was ours. At first I didn’t want a second dog, but he won me over. Now he is MY dog like Boomer is my husbands.

There is also Bruce, the crown-tail betta:

We have kitties too!

Moe was also a street rescue. We kept her as a store mascot when I worked at a pet store, then when the store closed she came home with me. HOWEVER, though she is our cat she lives across the street with our in-laws because she bonded with my father in law.

Here is a second picture of Moe cause she’s so pretty:

And last, but not least, there is Buster. Buster is a stray kitty we started feeding when we noticed him losing a lot of weight. He’s never calmed down and loved us, though he will let us pet him while he’s eating. Otherwise we can’t get close to him.

Girl Talk

Ezri: Mom went to the aquarium today.
Luka: She woudln’t take us, even though I asked.
Ezri: She coudln’t take pets.
Luka: She said they could have pets on the walking trail. We could have waited in the car.
Ezri: It would have been too hot. We’d be roast rat.
Luka: I wanted to see the fish.
Ezri: Even the CATfish and the octoPUSS?
Luka: Okay, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that we couldn’t go.

ADOPT US!

If you live in or near Savannah GA there is a pair of female rats who need new homes. From the petfinder.org write up:

Maki and Leila were thrown into the woods and left to die in their
cage. By the time they were found they didn’t have much longer. People
are worse than any animal I can think of.
If you’d like more information about them please call us at CLICK HERE FOR #

Its horrible how some person decided they didn’t want their pets anmore, and instead of setting them free where they stood a chance of survival (not much of a chance, but at least SOME chance) the tossed them out in the woods IN THEIR CAGE where they would eventually die of starvation, dehydration and heat.

Humans can be horrible creatures.

THE RAT TWINS

A pair of elderly twin ladies were a couple of animal hoarders, but instead of hoarding cats or dogs, Margaret and Marjorie Barthel hoarded rats. All was right in their world until a young couple moved next door and the poo hit the fans, so to speak.

Of course it didn’t end well for the rats. Instead of capturing and re-homing them as they would have if they twins HAD been hoarding dogs or cat, (or moving them all into the wild and out of the city) they tented the place and poisoned them all.

While I don’t support the hoarding of animals, or keeping more animals than you can properly care for, but neither do I support mass murder of rats. It broke my heart when I read “the sisters hired American Pest Control to tent the house. A crew
wearing face masks and hazmat suits emerged pale-faced and sober, as if
they had just witnessed the aftermath of a biohazard spill — which, in
a way, they had. Scott Denham says they hauled several large garbage
bags heavy with dead rats from the bedrooms, kitchen, attic, basement
and guesthouse, as the Denhams took photos.”

Since1958 the sisters had been living their with their rats. Surely, i’ll admit letting thousands of rats rule your house is a bit much, but like all animal hoarders they truely loved their rats. Then one young couple moves in next door, decides they dont like it, and now the sisters not only have to get rid of their beloved pets, but they are forced to PAY TO HAVE THEM KILLED!

You can read more about this story HERE, and HERE, but be forewarned, its very rat-phobic using many phrases like gruesome and skin-crawling.

*pause here while I go snuggle Luka and Ezri*

CAPTION WINNER

I hosted an EC caption contest a coupe of days ago, to caption a cute little rat and his bowl of cereal. A few people played, but only one person could take on the 500credits.

AND THE WINNER IS….

Babs (Beetle) of Beetle Blog for this caption:

Thanks for playing everyone! It was fun.

In fact, I’m going to do it again!

Caption the picture below, I’ll pick my favorite caption to win 500 EC credits. Winner will be announced next Raturday.

CAPTION THIS!

*not my picture* Credit goes to paulinacha

Sorry I’ve not posted in several days. I have a case of bloggers block.

He’s riding to raise money for Wee Companions which is a no-kill shelter for small pets (guinea pigs, rats, hamsters, mice, chinchillas and other small
exotics.)

Check out his page to learn more and give some support (encouragement if you can’t sponsor him)

^{Secondly, I’m bored, therefore you must entertain me.}

Caption the picture below and the one I like best will win 500 EC credits from me.

*not my rat* Photo found while surfing through stumbleupon online.

(This post is being posted via Scribefire. Lets hope it works okay)

My nephew, Jon, has taken an interest in rats, thanks to me. He gets to spend time with mine when he comes down from Atlanta to visit. He is particularly fond of Ezri.

He has been asking his mom if he can have a pet rat, and she is considering it so Jon is asking me lots of questions about my rats and how much different things cost.

I think that his mom has told him that he will have to pay to take care of it out of his allowance because he’s asking me a lot of questions about how much things cost.

I fear that he thinks becasue a rat is small (very small when compared to his dog which is a Newfoundland.

So, I started thinking about the cost of owning a pet rat.

For one thing, you should always get at least 2 rats. They do better in pairs. While the males may sometimes want to live alone (Buddy would not tolerate another rat living with him) the females NEED friends without a doubt.

So, while his mom is goign to want to let him get ONE rat, if any, he needs at least 2.

Then you have to get a cage for them.

They need space. A hamster or gerbil cage isn’t going to do it. They need room to climb. You need room to hang their hammocks and put a wheel and other toys for them.

The one my girls live in is more or less identical to this one (except for color and mine has another floor up top) I payed about $80 for it.

Then you have to get bedding to put in the cage. I use aspen shavings (Pine and cedar are BIG no-nos) We buy huge bags of it that last a while. About $10 per bag.

Then you have to feed the little dears.

Jon is under the impression that he doesn’t have to buy food for the rat, but that it can eat what he eats. I corrected him on that REAL quick. They NEED rat food because they need to get the correct nutrients for a rat. Feed a rat nothing but human leftovers and they are not healthy rats.

I feed my girls Nutriphase because it is the brand that they seem to like best (we’ve tried others in the past). They also get fresh fruits and veggies and occasionally a bit of egg and Luka likes hard dog food. But people foods are a TREAT not their staple diet.

I refill their bowls every other day, (they get TONS of food in their bowl, plus the fruits and veggies) and the bags of food cost about $8.

So right now we have the BARE minimum. Cage. Bedding. Food. We’re at $98.

Now, you gotta actually get your rats, right? Well on average I’ve found them for adoption and breeders at $15 for one or $30 for a pair. Since you need at least a pair that bumps it up to $128

That is before getting other things that rats need. Toys (enough to switch them out regularly so they don’t get bored) treats (my girls love Yogies) hammocks (though you can make them pretty cheap using dishtowels from the dollar store and a set of 4 paperclips).

AND, there are vet bills. While rats don’t have to have the yearly vaccs like dogs and cats, they do get sick. They are prone to repritory infections. Females are prone to mamary tumors. Luka has her eye infections. Rats shoudln’t be considred a “disposable” pet to let get sick and die. They need vet care too.

So, while pet rats might come out cheaper in the long run than a dog or a cat, they are by no means a CHEAP pet, and might be out of the price range of a 8 year old boy.

I suggested that maybe he get a pair of mice instead, but he still wants a rat.

If he gets it and can’t handle it, I guess his Aunt Nona could always take it in.