rat update
As you know, we have four rats now ... and this makes five total that Seth and I have had together. Socrates, appropriately enough, seems to be our "smartest" to date. By that, I mean he's figured out in just his one month here so far that he can climb off my chair without any help from blankets, etc., and that he can push the door to his house open and sneak out, if it's not secured properly.
Eek. It took Sherman months to learn that he could get up and down from the couch without dying. Scribbles and Rip STILL don't know they can. Well, I think Scribbles knows, but he doesn't like getting caught. Rip has no desire to explore -- the floor would terrify him.
Scribbles figured out he can climb down legs or blankets from the chair or couch, though .. and even from our bed. But Socrates beat him big time when it comes to how long it took him to figure it out.
Socrates is also a mole rat. Not literally, but he thinks he is. He loves going under covers or in your clothes. The funny thing is that he pushes with all his weight against my leg or my back or whatever part of me is in his way and somehow expects me to either move or expects to be able to mole through me. Combine the pushing/moling with climbing under my clothes and there are lots of screams around here.
Marley, on the other hand, is just plain fast. He's like I was when I was a kid -- he runs everywhere. Zoom! Blue blur. Marley fell off the couch earlier this evening and his reaction was to reach up and say, "help! help! get me back up!" hahaha. I've never seen a tatter do that before, but I was glad to help him back up. Then later, he tried to climb down off the chair the way he'd seen Socrates do it and I quickly picked him up and convinced him that wasn't a good idea.
Rip is still alpha male agoraphobe. Scribbles is still Rip's doormat and eats almost as slowly as I do (really).
I don't think we'll be putting the four together like we'd like to. Rip just flips his lid around them. He puffs up his fur to look bigger, and dude, he looks like a friggin' bear. I'm afraid he could hurt Marley. Marley wants to be dominate and I keep telling he can be over Socrates, but not Rip or Scribbles. They're much bigger than he is. Sigh.
In other mammal news, Creasy is shedding like crazy, which means I have to rinse my mouth out after holding him. No, really. Because that's the only way to get the hair out. There's no way of keeping it from getting in, unless I just plain don't touch him.. heh. Also, after holding him for a bit, I had to run and take my contacts out because there was bunny fur stuck to them. Gah.
Creasy is jealous of the little rats and is trying to be dominate over them. He's all, "What's up! Oh yeah? Come on out here!" when they're in their house .. but if he and Marley go nose to nose without a fence between them, Creasy runs.
In non-mammal news, the turtles are still swimming around in their tank .. and Moby is still the big boss in his tank.
In non-kid related news, I'm taking a stained glass class and no, I'm not making a giraffe.
Eek. It took Sherman months to learn that he could get up and down from the couch without dying. Scribbles and Rip STILL don't know they can. Well, I think Scribbles knows, but he doesn't like getting caught. Rip has no desire to explore -- the floor would terrify him.
Scribbles figured out he can climb down legs or blankets from the chair or couch, though .. and even from our bed. But Socrates beat him big time when it comes to how long it took him to figure it out.
Socrates is also a mole rat. Not literally, but he thinks he is. He loves going under covers or in your clothes. The funny thing is that he pushes with all his weight against my leg or my back or whatever part of me is in his way and somehow expects me to either move or expects to be able to mole through me. Combine the pushing/moling with climbing under my clothes and there are lots of screams around here.
Marley, on the other hand, is just plain fast. He's like I was when I was a kid -- he runs everywhere. Zoom! Blue blur. Marley fell off the couch earlier this evening and his reaction was to reach up and say, "help! help! get me back up!" hahaha. I've never seen a tatter do that before, but I was glad to help him back up. Then later, he tried to climb down off the chair the way he'd seen Socrates do it and I quickly picked him up and convinced him that wasn't a good idea.
Rip is still alpha male agoraphobe. Scribbles is still Rip's doormat and eats almost as slowly as I do (really).
I don't think we'll be putting the four together like we'd like to. Rip just flips his lid around them. He puffs up his fur to look bigger, and dude, he looks like a friggin' bear. I'm afraid he could hurt Marley. Marley wants to be dominate and I keep telling he can be over Socrates, but not Rip or Scribbles. They're much bigger than he is. Sigh.
In other mammal news, Creasy is shedding like crazy, which means I have to rinse my mouth out after holding him. No, really. Because that's the only way to get the hair out. There's no way of keeping it from getting in, unless I just plain don't touch him.. heh. Also, after holding him for a bit, I had to run and take my contacts out because there was bunny fur stuck to them. Gah.
Creasy is jealous of the little rats and is trying to be dominate over them. He's all, "What's up! Oh yeah? Come on out here!" when they're in their house .. but if he and Marley go nose to nose without a fence between them, Creasy runs.
In non-mammal news, the turtles are still swimming around in their tank .. and Moby is still the big boss in his tank.
In non-kid related news, I'm taking a stained glass class and no, I'm not making a giraffe.