I wish time still stopped for bad things like when I was a kid

Melvin "The Brick" Fatrat, July 2006 - March 5, 2009
He climbed into his hammock with his brother last night and didn't climb out again this morning.

*snigger*

So I've been feeding the ratties their antibiotics in a little bit of strawberry Ensure. Since the non-sick ones love it, too, after everyone is dosed I have been filling tiny souffle dishes with some Ensure and letting them go to town on it.

Now Benny, Lily, and Jae have no problems sharing a souffle cup among them, but Melvin and Percy always get into little shoving matches. I can usually break these up easily with my fingers, and they settle down and lap away like everyone else.

Except yesterday. Yesterday I looked away for one second, and hear a quiet *sploosh.*

Percy has dunked Melvin's face into the Ensure. He resurfaces with a little rattie wheeze. I don't start laughing until I realize that his whiskers are coated in so much ensure that they're sagging down by his toes. He backs up and starts grooming furiously, and Percy gets the cup to .

Poor Melvin. My little strawberry goo-coated baby.

Anyone have any champagne?

It has happened.

Percy, Melvin, Lilith, Jadis, and Benny have successfully spent the night in the same cage with no blood.

When I get home from classes, I get to set up the big cage.

That's right. I have them all down to one cage. An hour of my night, each night, has been freed.

\m/

My little baby Basil just had a stroke. I'm keeping him warm, but I don't think he will last the night.

::EDIT::
He's gone.

Summer's here.

Jadis and Lilith would like you to know they missed you.


Lily oms a pea.

The one on the left is the youngest by several months. Geez, Basil! D:


GASP! (Melvin)


More of my frumpy baby. OMG HE MAKES ME SO HAPPY.

I want to be in bed. So!

New Rattie Video

S.T. Strange stars in The Mummy!

The Benny has landed

We got a call at 11:00 last night telling us Benny was in Seattle. So, naturally, we road tripped up and got him. Was home at 3AM (the rattery owner of ROUS is very nice), set up his cage, and collapsed.

Woke up this morning, did introductions with S.T. and the ladies. Not a hitch. Even S.T. just went "eh, alright." I think he's still young enough to slide under the hormonal radar. When it was time to go back to cages, Benny tried to run into theirs. So, we may have him moved in tonight.

There will be pictures when everything has settled down a little and I sort through the hundreds of pictures I took at the zoo. And after I have checked to see if my belladonna have sprouted yet.

---

Pics to tug at heartstrings.

Everyone, meet Trinity Ann Awesomesauce, Maddo and Trevor's new baby rat. She was rescued from a neglectful owner. LOOK AT THAT FACE.

"Okay, the poo is off the floor. So is the Wren." "...How often is that said around here?"

THIS IS ART.

We got the new rat cage for S.T. Strange and the girls all set up, finally. We also have redone the boys' cage. Without further ado, here thar be pics.

The Harem:


The Pirate Cabana:


And here is a size reference for The Harem's new digs:


There are other pics, but I shall post them later. Need to head to my last class of the day now.

Heartstrings.

Meet Benny

Benny is a 3-4 month-old rat at a rescue in Vancouver, B.C.. He was found abandoned on the side of the highway, and is reportedly very shy.

I've put in an application to adopt him. Should we get him, we are going to call him "Goodbye Benny Anderson." Yes, that is a Mummy reference and a tribute to Neo. He'll move in with Melvin and Percival.

I am going to continue looking at this photo until my body once again decides it would rather live.

Obit.

Neo was laid to rest today in the campus Arboretum, under a Western Red Cedar. He was buried with his favorite wood shelf, chew chain, and hammock. His headstone is a granite boulder large enough to cover the entire grave and prevent tampering. In attendance were the entirety of Comic House, the friend who brought him to us, and his original owner from the psych lab. The entire ceremony, from digging to me crying, went off without issue or busybody interference.

We'll miss you, little guy.

I think we're out of the woods.

S.T. is drinking water of his own volition again. And lots of it.

I cannot really explain how happy I am right now.

Flood of cute

I am hopped up on Vicodin and sorting through my photos! Here is a visual representation of how I feel. (HINT: WARM AND FUZZY.)













:D I sleep now.

Another S.T. Update

I'm letting myself hope that he's going to make it. I wasn't so sure after work yesterday. I got home, dosed him, and tried to get him to eat or drink something, but he refused everything. So I gave him a clean nap area and went to bed. Woke up, dosed him, tried to get him to eat or drink, nothing. Woke up, fed the girls. He walked over to the food bowl and expressed an interest in the food, but didn't eat any of it.

Before work, I took him out, and offered him some applesauce baby food. He got a whiff of it and lunged for it like a ravenous cat, lapping frantically at it. (Side note: I can never be a mom. Seeing him down the applesauce like that made me start to tear up. It was so sad!) Ate for a minute before losing interest again. I try a Yogie, nothing. I try a piece of dried apple, and he takes it, but it is too chewy for him to get through. I ponder for a moment, then have an epiphany and offer him some apple juice. He drinks a cap-and-a-half-ful of it, then grooms a little bit.

It's the grooming that really got me. It's the first time I've seen him do it in days. He still looks as sick as can be. Porphyrin has coated his eyes and nose so much that his entire face looks bloody, and he's still taking shallow breaths, but he's not twitching anymore, and the clicking noise he was making when he breathed is nearly gone. He's also starting to struggle more when I dose him, which is a good sign, but also bad because it's more stressful for us both to get him his meds.

I think as long as we can keep convincing him to eat and drink that he'll be okay. I just want to see him eat something solid! D:

better news

Maddo and I took S.T. to the vet this morning. He was looking a little perkier last night, and we managed to get him to drink some Ensure, so we decided that if he was willing to fight, we'd help out.

The vet listened to him and said his heart sounded good, but his lungs were quite crackly. We're supposed to give him antibiotics twice a day until he's had them all. In the meantime, we've bought a ton of Ensure and baby food and wet dog food and anything else we can think of to tempt him to eat.

So...there may still be hope. Wish him luck, everyone.

S.T. Strange is dying.

And tomorrow morning I take the first of my three graduate exams.

S.T. Strange and the girls moved in together tonight. The monstrosity into which they moved has affectionately been dubbed the Frankencage. Creating it gained me a blood blister, two scratches, and badly bruised palms, but it's ALIIIIIVE.


This is the top half of the girl's old cage, which was originally Neo's cage, wired onto S.T.'s old cage to create a multi-story monstrosity. It is, however, quite possibly one of the sturdiest wire constructions currently on the planet.


S.T. really likes this "level" idea. We were wondering if he'd fit up there, but he hasn't had a problem. We have a rather nimble old man, it would seem. (It probably has a lot to do with the existence of the girls.)


We wired a tupperware to the ceiling of the cage to make a Nap Nest(tm). The girls took to it immediately-- it's where they eat now. S.T. can't fit in there very well, so it's kind of like their personal clubhouse (it's okay, he has a huge fleece hammock.)


The girls are getting easier to tell apart now. Lilith has a cream-colored collar around her neck, while Jadis is still a uniform color. (Lily on bottom, Jae on top.)

And there you have it. If you'll excuse me, I am going to take a post-exam nap now.

More rattie intros

Jadis, Lilith, and S.T. Strange met face-to-face the other day. While Tweaker and The Brick's cage soaks in the shower (it is much filthier than usual -.-), I figured I'd post a couple pics of the meeting.

First, we have a shot of Jadis' little tummy, complete with Comic House appropriate bandaging. Their sutures are now completely healed, though their skin is a little dry. I've been giving them aloe and bread with olive oil on to make it better. We'll see how well that works in another day or so.

That is an aura of FEAR. She was so sure we were going to force another syringe of pain meds down her throat.

Here is Lilith giving S.T. a kiss. Jadis is terrified of him. Then again, he is ENORMOUS.

Trevor was the "neutral ground" for the meeting. As you can see, he didn't much mind.

The girls are getting so big! I can't wait to see how big they are when fully grown.

Okay, time to go rinse the cage. I really wish they would all get along so I'd have fewer cages to clean. ._.