And then there were five...
ktok and I had to run some errands yesterday, and then dinner at Dad's that made me run late for the party at estuelke's house for sage_dragonfly.
One of those errands was to go to PetCo to pick up some ratty nylabones for Edward and Sumie to try to curb their new habit of chewing up the cage, as well as get some more bedding. While we were there, we were cooing over the ratties. It's funny how they have them listed as "Small Rats" for $4.99, "Medium Rats" for $6.99, and "Large Rats" for $8.99. When we got Edward and Sumie, they were the size of the "Small Rats" and now they're bigger than the "Large Rats"!
Anyway, there were a couple of the "Small Rats" we fell in love with. One was a pretty champagne colored girl with ruby eyes, and another was a sable girl with a mark on her neck like a kodiak bear. The little boys were pouring on the cuteness too. We had the extra cage now, so we were debating coming home with them. Well, then the manager came out and said that he had some baby ratlets in the back for adoption if we were interested. He asked if we wanted to see them and came back out carrying this little hooded (looks like Edward). He handed her to me, but I was holding things, she got spooked, and bolted...to the floor and under the shelving unit. Thankfully the way the shelving unit was set up, the bottom kept her contained in an area about 5 ft long. I kept my eye on her while the manager got the bird net. It took us a while, but we finally got her out. She bit me in the process, but barely broke the skin and it actually didn't hurt too much and only bled a little. Poor thing was too scared.
We debated a little longer, and asked about adopting them. The manager then brought us to the back this time to see the little ratlets so we didn't have a repeat attempted getaway! They were in a 10-gallon fishtank cage with their mother rat, a little sable girl. Poor thing was skin and bones, too, but the babies were healthy and eating pellets already.
What I think happened is the mother either got stuck in with the males, or a male was stuck with the females when they hit sexual maturity. My guess is she was in with the males because she was the only mommy ratty in the back. I've seen some mixed sexes at the store before, even though they usually keep them separate. It kind of ticks me off because it's NOT hard to spot which ones are the males. It's usually not too bad, but some of the people working there do seem to lack any sense of attention to these matters. Some of the people working there are GREAT, but others? Borderline retarded, I swear.
Anyway, we asked about adopting the mommy ratty too, but the manager said that because of her health (she was SOOOO skinny) they couldn't let her go. They had to keep her there and nurse her back to a healthy weight. And I've heard of this before. On one of the pet adoption sites I used to go to (while looking for rescue Yorkies) someone who rescued budgies said she'd go into pet stores like PetCo and PetSmart and they would say the same thing...they couldn't sell sick or injured birds. When she presented her vet's license, she could usually get them to give her the birds so she could nurse them and then adopt them out. Still, I really wanted to take her in. I felt bad about taking her babies away, but she did seem ready to be rid of them, herself!
Long story short, we were hooked. When we planned to come home with just the nylabones and the bedding, and then *considered* getting two ratties, we wound up coming home with three. They didn't cost us anything. We had to get another water bottle, but we had a food dish and igloos and the spare cage already.
Right now, they are without names. We're kind of "dividing them up" by each of us "getting" a hooded, and then we'll name the sable together...kind of how Edward is "my" rattie and Sumie is "Ktok's" rattie. Because she bit me, I jokingly say we're "blood-bonded" so I'm laying claim on the hoodie with the narrower stripe on her back. I'm leaning toward naming her Phobia because she's a little scaredy-rat. The other two are a bit more curious, though they still dash into their igloo when we come near their cage. We're pretty sure they're all female, but want to give them some time here before we traumatize them further to catch them and check...they ARE still pretty young.
So for now, we're collectively calling the three of them "the Ickles" (our ratty-baby-talk for "Little" which usually comes out as, "Wook at da ickle watties!"...don't ask) and I've warned Ktok that he'd better help me out with names or I'm going to start calling the other two something like "Runty" and "Poopstick" and you know how names like that stick!
The good news is they've all explored their cage a bit, and since their cage is next to Edward and Sumie's cage, they like to be up on the platform to sniff at those two. Edward was sniffing back, interested in them. We're still going to keep them all separate, but we're letting them get to know each other from a distance.
Pictures to come when I can take some!
In other news, my costume for the party was a hit. I got there about 2 hours FASHIONABLY late (because after dealing with the ratties, we still had dinner with Dad, had to go to the ABC store and the grocery store, and that made me late because I still had to shower and get ready) and missed out on earning a prize, but I was assured that had I gotten there earlier I would have won something. *LOL* That's okay, the fun part was dressing up!
The only other down side was that I didn't really get to "get in character" since I arrived late.
The theme of the party was "Going the Other Way, or Come As You're Not"...the invite hinted strongly at cross-dressing, but you could get a costume that was so not you if you didn't want to cross-dress. But you had to be in costume. Wednesday I finally figured out what I wanted to do: jeff_be_quick said on his acceptance of the e-vite that it was kind of unfair that girls just had to put on jeans and a polo shirt. So I took that as kind of a challenge.
I searched the patterns websites for something appropriate, and Wednesday afternoon I went out and bought a pattern (because I didn't have time to draft my own), some gold colored sequin fabric, some lining, and a zipper and headed home. I was thinking about doing it in blue, but the blue fabric they had just wasn't dark enough for the image I had in my head. I also considered red, but with red hair, it probably would have looked off. So I thought the gold would be a good choice and easy to accessorize. I was able to complete the outfit by Friday, even with having to re-size the bust to fit after I had sewn the outer material together. While I sewed the main seams with my machine, the serger keroberos sent me for my birthday worked WONDERS in finishing those seams so they wouldn't unravel...especially for the lining material. I think that helped the construction process go twice as fast since I didn't have to do French seams or worry about it fraying.
I picked up some opera-length black gloves and some fake gold-and-diamond chandelier earrings at Claire's, some new fishnets at Victoria's Secret (because the ones I have were pretty old and the holes weren't big enough), and found my old black velvet heels with the gold buckles, a gold bracelet, and a costume gold-and-diamond ring that would fit on my pinky over the gloves. I curled my hair and wore my small silver tiara. I even used thick black false eyelashes and bright red lipstick. I wore a black velvet ribbon tied around my neck in a bow (I wanted to cut it in half and sew it together to double the width, and then tape a cotton ball or something to the back to simulate it covering an Adam's apple, but the ribbon wasn't long enough). All in all, it looked really great!
The finishing touch, though? I borrowed one of Ktok's black socks, stuffed some more socks into it, and stuffed the whole thing into the front of my fishnets.
So I was cross-dressing...as a guy who was cross-dressing as a drag queen. The character name I came up with was "Jewell O'Denial." I was going to say it's a traditional Irish name (I re-colored my hair so it was bright copper again) and really ham it up. I brought my own sparkling wine and a plastic wine glass (I couldn't find any plastic champagne flutes at Kroger, which ticked me off...I can never find anything in that store!), but I didn't have time to get one of those long cigarette holders. However, as I mentioned, arriving *that* late (I was expecting to be there at 9 because of dinner at Dad's, but didn't get there until 10) kind of made it hard to get into character.
It was a lot of fun! And playing DDR with a slight wine buzz and stuffing between your legs so it feels strange to walk? Very interesting! Thankfully I didn't get too much of a buzz, and it was gone by the time I left...I noticed a lot of state troopers on the road all day yesterday, and passed two speed traps on the way home. I was happy toodling along at the speed limit with the cruise control on and letting other people pass me and be the cop bait. Besides, I really just didn't want to have to explain the drag queen get-up and say I'm NOT really a guy...please ignore the large bulge between my legs!
Again, I know people took pictures, but I didn't bring a camera. If I can get copies, I will probably post them. That's assuming the flash on the costume didn't over-explose the pictures!
So that was my night...how was yours?
One of those errands was to go to PetCo to pick up some ratty nylabones for Edward and Sumie to try to curb their new habit of chewing up the cage, as well as get some more bedding. While we were there, we were cooing over the ratties. It's funny how they have them listed as "Small Rats" for $4.99, "Medium Rats" for $6.99, and "Large Rats" for $8.99. When we got Edward and Sumie, they were the size of the "Small Rats" and now they're bigger than the "Large Rats"!
Anyway, there were a couple of the "Small Rats" we fell in love with. One was a pretty champagne colored girl with ruby eyes, and another was a sable girl with a mark on her neck like a kodiak bear. The little boys were pouring on the cuteness too. We had the extra cage now, so we were debating coming home with them. Well, then the manager came out and said that he had some baby ratlets in the back for adoption if we were interested. He asked if we wanted to see them and came back out carrying this little hooded (looks like Edward). He handed her to me, but I was holding things, she got spooked, and bolted...to the floor and under the shelving unit. Thankfully the way the shelving unit was set up, the bottom kept her contained in an area about 5 ft long. I kept my eye on her while the manager got the bird net. It took us a while, but we finally got her out. She bit me in the process, but barely broke the skin and it actually didn't hurt too much and only bled a little. Poor thing was too scared.
We debated a little longer, and asked about adopting them. The manager then brought us to the back this time to see the little ratlets so we didn't have a repeat attempted getaway! They were in a 10-gallon fishtank cage with their mother rat, a little sable girl. Poor thing was skin and bones, too, but the babies were healthy and eating pellets already.
What I think happened is the mother either got stuck in with the males, or a male was stuck with the females when they hit sexual maturity. My guess is she was in with the males because she was the only mommy ratty in the back. I've seen some mixed sexes at the store before, even though they usually keep them separate. It kind of ticks me off because it's NOT hard to spot which ones are the males. It's usually not too bad, but some of the people working there do seem to lack any sense of attention to these matters. Some of the people working there are GREAT, but others? Borderline retarded, I swear.
Anyway, we asked about adopting the mommy ratty too, but the manager said that because of her health (she was SOOOO skinny) they couldn't let her go. They had to keep her there and nurse her back to a healthy weight. And I've heard of this before. On one of the pet adoption sites I used to go to (while looking for rescue Yorkies) someone who rescued budgies said she'd go into pet stores like PetCo and PetSmart and they would say the same thing...they couldn't sell sick or injured birds. When she presented her vet's license, she could usually get them to give her the birds so she could nurse them and then adopt them out. Still, I really wanted to take her in. I felt bad about taking her babies away, but she did seem ready to be rid of them, herself!
Long story short, we were hooked. When we planned to come home with just the nylabones and the bedding, and then *considered* getting two ratties, we wound up coming home with three. They didn't cost us anything. We had to get another water bottle, but we had a food dish and igloos and the spare cage already.
Right now, they are without names. We're kind of "dividing them up" by each of us "getting" a hooded, and then we'll name the sable together...kind of how Edward is "my" rattie and Sumie is "Ktok's" rattie. Because she bit me, I jokingly say we're "blood-bonded" so I'm laying claim on the hoodie with the narrower stripe on her back. I'm leaning toward naming her Phobia because she's a little scaredy-rat. The other two are a bit more curious, though they still dash into their igloo when we come near their cage. We're pretty sure they're all female, but want to give them some time here before we traumatize them further to catch them and check...they ARE still pretty young.
So for now, we're collectively calling the three of them "the Ickles" (our ratty-baby-talk for "Little" which usually comes out as, "Wook at da ickle watties!"...don't ask) and I've warned Ktok that he'd better help me out with names or I'm going to start calling the other two something like "Runty" and "Poopstick" and you know how names like that stick!
The good news is they've all explored their cage a bit, and since their cage is next to Edward and Sumie's cage, they like to be up on the platform to sniff at those two. Edward was sniffing back, interested in them. We're still going to keep them all separate, but we're letting them get to know each other from a distance.
Pictures to come when I can take some!
In other news, my costume for the party was a hit. I got there about 2 hours FASHIONABLY late (because after dealing with the ratties, we still had dinner with Dad, had to go to the ABC store and the grocery store, and that made me late because I still had to shower and get ready) and missed out on earning a prize, but I was assured that had I gotten there earlier I would have won something. *LOL* That's okay, the fun part was dressing up!
The only other down side was that I didn't really get to "get in character" since I arrived late.
The theme of the party was "Going the Other Way, or Come As You're Not"...the invite hinted strongly at cross-dressing, but you could get a costume that was so not you if you didn't want to cross-dress. But you had to be in costume. Wednesday I finally figured out what I wanted to do: jeff_be_quick said on his acceptance of the e-vite that it was kind of unfair that girls just had to put on jeans and a polo shirt. So I took that as kind of a challenge.
I searched the patterns websites for something appropriate, and Wednesday afternoon I went out and bought a pattern (because I didn't have time to draft my own), some gold colored sequin fabric, some lining, and a zipper and headed home. I was thinking about doing it in blue, but the blue fabric they had just wasn't dark enough for the image I had in my head. I also considered red, but with red hair, it probably would have looked off. So I thought the gold would be a good choice and easy to accessorize. I was able to complete the outfit by Friday, even with having to re-size the bust to fit after I had sewn the outer material together. While I sewed the main seams with my machine, the serger keroberos sent me for my birthday worked WONDERS in finishing those seams so they wouldn't unravel...especially for the lining material. I think that helped the construction process go twice as fast since I didn't have to do French seams or worry about it fraying.
I picked up some opera-length black gloves and some fake gold-and-diamond chandelier earrings at Claire's, some new fishnets at Victoria's Secret (because the ones I have were pretty old and the holes weren't big enough), and found my old black velvet heels with the gold buckles, a gold bracelet, and a costume gold-and-diamond ring that would fit on my pinky over the gloves. I curled my hair and wore my small silver tiara. I even used thick black false eyelashes and bright red lipstick. I wore a black velvet ribbon tied around my neck in a bow (I wanted to cut it in half and sew it together to double the width, and then tape a cotton ball or something to the back to simulate it covering an Adam's apple, but the ribbon wasn't long enough). All in all, it looked really great!
The finishing touch, though? I borrowed one of Ktok's black socks, stuffed some more socks into it, and stuffed the whole thing into the front of my fishnets.
So I was cross-dressing...as a guy who was cross-dressing as a drag queen. The character name I came up with was "Jewell O'Denial." I was going to say it's a traditional Irish name (I re-colored my hair so it was bright copper again) and really ham it up. I brought my own sparkling wine and a plastic wine glass (I couldn't find any plastic champagne flutes at Kroger, which ticked me off...I can never find anything in that store!), but I didn't have time to get one of those long cigarette holders. However, as I mentioned, arriving *that* late (I was expecting to be there at 9 because of dinner at Dad's, but didn't get there until 10) kind of made it hard to get into character.
It was a lot of fun! And playing DDR with a slight wine buzz and stuffing between your legs so it feels strange to walk? Very interesting! Thankfully I didn't get too much of a buzz, and it was gone by the time I left...I noticed a lot of state troopers on the road all day yesterday, and passed two speed traps on the way home. I was happy toodling along at the speed limit with the cruise control on and letting other people pass me and be the cop bait. Besides, I really just didn't want to have to explain the drag queen get-up and say I'm NOT really a guy...please ignore the large bulge between my legs!
Again, I know people took pictures, but I didn't bring a camera. If I can get copies, I will probably post them. That's assuming the flash on the costume didn't over-explose the pictures!
So that was my night...how was yours?