^_____^ Kissed the girls and made them cry...
Meet Pudding and Pie, the two newest members of my family! I got the ratties a couple of weeks ago from Petco. Pudding is beige with ruby eyes, and Pie is a black hooded. Yes, yes, getting pets from a store is a bad idea, and these boys were no exception. They were underfed, sick, and terrified of people. The first two were relatively easy to fix, with the proper application of steady food, a vet, and some banana-nut flavored medicine - which they hated at first, but now try to suck the last drop out of the syringe. Maaan, if only my medicines ever tasted half as good as their stuff smells...
The people-shy is taking a bit longer. The girl at the store who helped me was so obviously disgusted by rats, she tried to grab them by the tails; I ended up elbowing her to the side and scooping them out myself. (To be fair, she was really from the fish department, not small animals.) By necessity of two doses of Baytril a day, and general petting and coaxing, they've become friendly enough to come up, sniff my hand and put front paws in my palm. It'll be more work yet before they like me enough to eat out of my hand, or volunteer for a ride.
Physically, they look much better than the did two weeks ago. They're both about twice the size, and now have a nice layer of fat (which made me realize, in retrospect, how skinny they were at first).
In the middle of writing this, I glanced over at the cage and... dang! I've never even met a cat who was that easy to potty train! I love these boys!
Here they are on day one:
The people-shy is taking a bit longer. The girl at the store who helped me was so obviously disgusted by rats, she tried to grab them by the tails; I ended up elbowing her to the side and scooping them out myself. (To be fair, she was really from the fish department, not small animals.) By necessity of two doses of Baytril a day, and general petting and coaxing, they've become friendly enough to come up, sniff my hand and put front paws in my palm. It'll be more work yet before they like me enough to eat out of my hand, or volunteer for a ride.
Physically, they look much better than the did two weeks ago. They're both about twice the size, and now have a nice layer of fat (which made me realize, in retrospect, how skinny they were at first).
In the middle of writing this, I glanced over at the cage and... dang! I've never even met a cat who was that easy to potty train! I love these boys!
Here they are on day one: