Greetings

Well had to have a bit of a revamp of things as we are getting far to large for the space allocated.

If you don't like to design blame a certain rodant he helped. Well he pushed lots of keys on the keyboard and this is what we end up with.

Mummy Rat will tell you about the latest edition, no not my fault this time as I came back empty yesterday, much to the upset of others I could only find mostly girls or boys who looked too old.

More soon

He’s out on his own…. Again

As DaddyRat told you, we’ve had some problems in the Rat household (excluding the rodent population who, as DaddyRat said, have been a constant source of support for us all) and so postings on this blog have become a luxury that we couldn’t afford, timewise.

Well, I’m now on holiday and have some time so here I am. I’m sat here quaking, because DaddyRat has sallied forth into the wild blue yonder in search of baby rats. Since our last post we’ve had a few sad times, losing our old man Fitzgerald (who fought death as he fought life, bless him), the poseur Tim (who loved having his photograph taken), lovely Nurse Delko (who was one of the kindest rats in the world), Carter (who wasn’t a people-person!), and Ross (who also wasn’t a people person). We now have 26 little residents but I’m convinced when DaddyRat returns we’ll be knocking on the door of 30 again although he’s been given strict instructions that No More Than Two should be purchased.

As DaddyRat said, the imports from April – Shovel, Splinter, Malone, Gibbs and Horatio – have all settled down and their own personalities have emerged. They’ve been joined by some new boys – Munch (who appears to be known now as Fake Shovel, for reasons which will become clear) and Ross (who appears to be known as Fake Woollie), and subsequently by Hotch and the new Fitzgerald. Shovel has usurped the title of World’s Favourite Rat from Colin (who is now the Grand Old Man of the cage) by sheer dint of personality – go to Rat Towers and There Is Shovel, at any time of the day or night. Shovel NEVER seems to sleep; he’s always on the go and is constantly in search of attention. He loves people and has such a sweet, tolerant nature – he’s quite happy being rolled and having his tummy blown on and being generally mistreated in the nicest possible way, just as long as he’s Getting Attention. As DaddyRat reported, Shovel loves to be inside the clothing of MummyRat – preferably next to skin… this is fine and dandy but Shovel comes equipped with a lethal set of talons on each hand and foot. MummyRat now resembles an extra from a Rambo movie, after suffering the loving attentions of Shovel. Fake Shovel looks very similar to Shovel himself and has ambitions in similar directions, which adds up to disaster for MummyRat’s person but is excellent for the local trade in TCP.

Another rat who has come to the fore as being especially affectionate is Simon – MummyRat remains to be convinced that this is out of sheer love of the human race and has an inkling that it might be due to his constant quest for anything Shiny. There was an unsavoury incident the other evening involving Simon and Gibbs working as a team to steal a crisp packet – Shovel acted as a decoy to get MummyRat’s attention while Simon and Gibbs spirited said crisp packet to the basement of Rat Towers. There was much scuffling and squeaking as MummyRat engaged in an ungainly bout of wrestling to retrieve the packet – the jury is still out as to whose language was the worst on that occasion.

There has been a further unseemly trend developing in Rat Towers too – this involves the molestation of Colin by three other rats, namely Kovac, Data and Fake Shovel. Colin is straight and is inclined to resent the attentions he apparently seems to attract from these rats who appear not to mind that the object of their desire is large and male and doesn’t return their love. Since Colin is the biggest rat in Rat Towers as well as the oldest and Fake Shovel is one of the smallest, it presents quite a spectacle when Fake Shovel has hold of Colin’s love handles, whilst Colin is doing a fine impression of Red Rum crossed with a bucking bronco around the cage, with Fake Shovel determinedly rogering away whilst maintaining a sprint that would put Ben Johnson to shame. As you can imagine, the long summer evenings just FLY by with such entertainment on offer.

Well, we’ll see how many babies DaddyRat comes home with. I’m sure Shovel is capable of keeping order, but I’m not sure I like the lascivious looks on the faces of Kovac, Data and Fake Shovel…

Been a while but we are still here

Hi again folks

I know we have not posted in a while but we have had some problems but the rats have helped us through. No doubt mummy rat will fill you all in on the NEW babies only 2 this time but we have had a few depart from us as well.

Sadly we did lose the favourite Tim he just curled up one day and didn't wake up.

What else is new well we now have a cage full of energy and all the rats seem to want to be on the outside of the cage and not the inside. Led by new number one boy Shovel, His antics are going to become the stuff legends are made of. For some reason he likes wearing mummy rats clothes though she is still wearing them at the time.

As for me I have Wolf or Woolie as he is commonly called, very smart and very muscular rat with a funny personality though very weak bowels. When we went to pick some new ones the cage was opened and he just strolled out and onto my arm so he was coming home with us no matter what.

Anyway more to follow - I will get mummy rat to post over the weekend.

Yes, we did

Get some little boys, that is. A trip was made to Pets at Home in Lincoln and the three little dumbo lads that were there were inspected, cuddled and brought home. One is a white and beige boy and is the new Tony (but BIGGER and with RATTITUDE), another is a little brown boy like the new Woollie and is the new Ross, and the final one (yes, I know we only went for two but you can’t leave one left in his cage all on his own in a shop can you?? It just isn’t cricket to do that) is a really dark grey boy who looks very similar to Shovel and is called Munch – or more often than not, Fake Shovel.

They’re still in the nursery cage so that they get friendly and to appreciate human company but that doesn’t seem to be an issue with this batch since they’re extremely people-friendly little boys. They also seem to like other rats too and are doing their level best to get out of the nursery and into Rat Towers to be with the Big Boys. The Big Boys themselves regularly visit the babies – some even deign to enter the nursery cage to have a look round to see if there’s anything there they want, like a particularly appealing receipt or maybe even a pizza menu – so all will be well when the babies make the transition to Rat Towers.

Speaking of receipts and menus, it is the wont in our household to put any junk mail or unwanted bits of paper into Rat Towers, posting it through the bars so that it can be spirited off into the back and checked for codes and any other information that may be of use to the collective. The other day there was a pub menu posted in, along with a pizza home delivery menu – the latter was grabbed and duly consulted. Simon did his best to get access to my mobile phone so that they could order a deep pan 12 inch four cheese pizza with extra cheese and then even more cheese but sadly the plan backfired when he realised that the credit card he’s stolen a few weeks ago no longer held good. He tried haggling, offering the pizza company Fitzgerald and Shovel in exchange for the delivery but sadly that didn’t work either. They had to settle for rat nuggets, as usual.,,

Do we, don’t we? Will we, won’t we?

The jury is still out on this vital and life-changing decision; life-changing for a pair of little rodents, that is. Since we lost Tony and Ross – he was one of our Friends batch of boys and was brother to the resident Raffles, Simon – we have a pair of vacancies for some new boys. It just so happened that on my way home from work today I called at Pets at Home to get our monthly three sacks of Rat Nuggets, and of course had a look at the rats they have in the shop there… sadly, two girls. When I brought this news home to DaddyRat he showed considerably less enthusiasm than the boys of Rat Towers – Simon had pinched my car keys and four of them had just reversed the car out of the garage and were piggy-backing me out into the driving seat before the sentence was fully out of my mouth – clearly THEY thought the installation of a pair of ladies in with them was a Very Good Idea. Clearly as a mother No Girl is Ever Going to be Good Enough for my boys, not even the two little black and white beauties they had in the shop, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint them on this occasion.

I’m sat on my little computer with Shovel giving me a hand – he said he’d like to browse Rat Porn when I’ve finished writing my post – admiring the criss-crossing of scratches currently adorning my chest, all complements of a very determined and enthusiastic climber – climber into ladies’ clothes, that is – who goes by the name of Shovel. On Monday he was out for his cuddles, fun and frolics and was showing what I considered to be far too close an interest in my cleavage; for some reason it became completely imperative to Shovel’s well-being that he gain access to the insides of my undergarments. I have no explanation of this; neither, apparently, does Shovel, although I believe he’s been coached rather too enthusiastically by DaddyRat. I believe they may be in cahoots on this matter, although I have no proof. Despite much wrestling and considerable jockeying for position Shovel managed to get himself inside my underwear – it’s amazing, give how tight said underwear is, how much squirming one small rodent can accomplish despite his eyes popping due to the nature of the industrial-strength elastic I sport on a daily basis…

Little Tony

Poor little boy - he tried to live, but finally his tiny body couldn't carry on and he lost his battle yesterday at 10:20pm, dying in MummyRat's hands. Another sad funeral and heartbreak for loving "parents". The one good thing was that it was very peaceful - he curled up and went to sleep, and that was it. We only had his company for three weeks, but it was enough to ensure the tears.

His brothers are lively and healthy, however, as are New Woolie and New Grissom - the day before Tony died he was playing with his brother Splinter, with his nursery-cage-mates Shovel, Gibbs, Horatio and Malone, New Woolie and Grissom, and big boys Simon, Taylor and Joey and generally running riot and causing chaos and leaving mayhem in his wake.

This is the memory we'll hold of him - playing happily and enjoying his tiny life.

Nightmare on Roman Street (well, the A46, anyway)

Last week was a loving MummyRat’s week from hell; first of all there was a bug going around Rat Towers that appeared to affect most of the older rats in residence, and second there were sadly two fatalities as a result – first of all my lovely Nurse Grissom, and then the big, strong Woolie who went from being nearly 600g in weight to 350g in less than a week. Grissom left us on Friday 17th April, after Mummy and DaddyRat had taken a coach-full of students to the Gadget Show in Birmingham. Upon returning home, there was the sad little body of the loveliest rat in the world waiting to have his little funeral, with Woolie dying in MummyRat’s arms the day after. Two little bodies, two funerals. So sad. The good news is that the other boys appear to be recovered from the bugs they were host to; Delko spent Sunday curled up being a Poor Sick Rat on MummyRat’s knee, but perked up after a bit of spoiling.

The new batch of six boys are still in their little cage awaiting their transference into Rat Towers; all appear to be really friendly and extremely intelligent people, with Shovel (Spade is his Sunday name) consistently outsmarting both devoted parents with ease. Little Tony (beautiful white rat with pink eyes) isn’t doing too well, sadly – he’s still tiny and isn’t putting on any weight – but he seems happy enough. If he doesn’t improve within the week, he’s going for a Trip To See The Vet. He’ll love that.

Well…. It had to happen. After the loss of Grissom and Woolie we had two vacancies in Rat Towers to fill. A trip to Pets at Home was made yesterday… and two more boys were selected to join the throng. First of all a little brown and white boy was appointed to replace Grissom (a very hard job of work to do) but in this case he’s a dumbo and Nurse Grissom wasn’t. Second, a comparatively big boy was interviewed – he’s a big round brown dumbo and is the new Woolie. He spent an hour this morning on MummyRat’s knee, and managed to charm the entire household by being loving, friendly and extremely TIRED requiring a nap at frequent intervals. He is probably one of the sweetest natured little rodents to employ Mummy and DaddyRat as owners.

On consideration, probably the reason that Woolie was so Tired was due to the journey home from Lincoln to Grantham – thirty hectic miles in which Woolie managed to eat his way out of the box in which he was inserted with considerable lack of dignity in the Lincoln store, and after incorporation into Grissom’s box was a good way through snicking his way out of that too. MummyRat had to blow into his nostrils in order to get him to behave in an orderly fashion – that gave him cause to think for a nano-second before normal service was resumed and chewing recommenced. By the end of the journey both new boys were sitting on a piece of box the size of a postage stamp surrounded by chewed pap and MummyRat was blue through lack of oxygen.

Interestingly, when we were introducing the new boys to some of the older boys, New Woolie and Simon went shuffling off into a corner and were whispering together, clearly hatching some devious plot. Five minutes later, Simon – who is the Rat Towers Raffles in that anything that is shiny is INSTANTLY desirable to Simon and therefore must become his property (there was an unsavoury occurrence where Simon and DaddyRat had a tug of war over an empty crisp packet that Simon was determined to own and DaddyRat was equally determined that he himself would keep) and the cunning Simon had clearly made a snap assessment in that New Woolie would be a worthy ally in his quest to denude MummyRat of all her jewellery; New Woolie is the Ideal Straight-Man to Simon’s Stand-Up. Ten minutes later, MummyRat noticed that she’d lost two bracelets, three earrings, one ring and a necklace and Simon was peering through his magnifying glass at the hallmarks on his plunder.

MummyRat has the feeling that she’s going to be shopping at Accessorize rather than Goldsmiths in future…