Human training

It is surprisingly easy to train your humans. Our Big Human is especially easy to train. He has long been able to perform simple tricks but, as you can see, he has now been trained to hold our blueberry pastries for us while we eat them, so that we don't have to get out paws sticky. I know it is not good for him, but occasionally we even let him have a little nibble of pastry as a reward for being such a good boy !

Mad Mice Snacks

The Mice Snacks are still growing. This weekend they passed their official tripled-since-petshop weight of 60g. Not bad going for only 30 days. Yet still we proper rats are not allowed to eat them up.

Recently they invented a dumb game. The Big Human managed to film one of them playing, although sometimes all three will play at once. Thing about mouse snacks is they don't know when enough is enough. They would play this silly games all day long if the Little Human would let them.

mice snacks

As well as corn me and Ma have been attempting to enjoy some little mouse-snacks. After Ma got a chunk out of one of the mouse-snacks their cage has now been turned into a difficult puzzle. We can smell the mouse-snacks inside but we just can't get in through the stupidly fine mesh. We can't even grab a succulent and no doubt very tasty toe!

The little idiot taunts us with pictures of the succulent morsels which, actually are growing amazingly fast and will soon be a whole meal each! Do you think perhaps they are just being fattened up for us?

The one "helping" with the sewing is called "Vaughny". You can see where Mummy took a bite out of his nose. Unfortunately it seems to have healed up well. ...sigh ... well I suppose at least that means we have more mouse-treat to enjoy later, when we find a way in to the cage.

corn o matic

Of an evening I do enjoy a corn on the cob. The little idiot has the very bad habit of trying to steal my corn. What a meanie she is.

The mini-ones

The week after the death of the best rat ever the little human (hereafter the little idiot) remained inconsolable. What's worse, her lover the big human was also absent. I can't see the fascination with males myself. I mean Phil was fun for a shag and a cuddle and of course we were sad for a half a day when he died, but he was bone idle, never lifting a finger to help with the renovations to the sofa, couldn't be bothered to knaw through a macadamia nut shell and worst of all never left the comfort of the sofa to explore the world.

So, anyway, come Tuesday the little human was off to - the Pet Shop. And what did she come back with?

These!

The bloke at the pet shop told her they were rats, but I'll tell you they don't smell like no rat and in fact I quite fancy one as a tasty snack right now. All I know is that they are a "lesser" species, that deserve to die. The little idiot tells me they are multimammate mice. Well - they are boys, so I guess that is the main thing. At least they don't stink like mice do and they don't seem quite as stupid as mice either. But I don't think they are very pretty do you? At least they are nothing compared to beautiful beautiful me!

best rat ever

The little human and the big human have known many many rats and they tell me that Phil-rat was the best rat ever. He died on 26th May at about 2 years of age. He didn't have a day of illness his whole life, not even a sneeze, until he developed a lump on his backside about a month before he died. The lump grew fast and spread across his flank. It felt like a lot of the lump was internal, so prospects didn't seem great and he slowly became less active. Then on the night of 25th May he felt cold. A cold rat in the evening is often a dead rat the next day but Phil seemed OK the next day and ate some cereal in soya milk quite enthusiastically. Then he died at about human lunchtime. Me and mummy were very sad because Phil was our luvver, and so we went and hid at the top of the cage until the umans came home. The big human went away the next day for a whole weeeeek so it is just as well Phil died when he did because the big human was Phil's best friend and he wouldn't have liked to be lonely.

trick rat

I am a trick rat. I do loads of really cool tricks. I climb curtains and jump large distances up and down. I am also conducting serious research undermining the structure of the sofa. Usually the humans are faar tooo slooow to catch me on film, but recently they saw me climbing the window and wer quick enough to film me climbing down. I am hoping that I might get an audition for a part in Spiderman 4.

R.I.P BillRat

On 7th April Bill-rat died peacefully. He had repeated abscesses (~4 over several months) on each side of his jaw but actually at the time of his death was not suffering from one. He had become quieter and quieter over a couple of months and had started to get very tired after trying to run about. I guess he may have had heart failure although he didn't look blue (which is a sign of oxygen not getting round the body very well). Phil-rat was sad to lose his best friend so ever since then me and Mummy have been living with him to keep him company. Phil-rat keeps trying to convince us to bear his sons, but while we enjoy the mating game every so often we prefer to remain unburdened by motherhood.

The Ratty Troubles - or, an instant jet-lag cure

The little human went away, and then she came back. She seemed very tired in the mornings. The big human says this is called "jetlag". But the big human and me and mummy, we invented a jetlag cure. The big human makes a cup of tea and gets some breakfast cereal flakes. Then he takes us and the tea and the flakes down to the little human and puts us on her bed. We have a wonderful time running around nipping her nose and her toes and crawling into her clothes and loudly munching on the crispy cereal, and dipping our noses in the tea. It is our favourite fun time. In only a few minutes the little human is wide awake, but if she does fall asleep again we nip her on the nose until she wakes up. No more lazy mornings for the little human!

R.I.P. ColBol

At New Year Colin seemed very ill and we all thought he was a goner, but then he mostly recovered, although stayed in a one level tank due to increased head tilt/ balance problems. He continued to improve and by last Wednesday he could wander around on the floor heading where he intended (rather than falling over due to balance problems). On Thursday he seemed less well and the little human noticed that the side of his face seemed a little swollen. Then on Friday night he felt cold and was a bit fluffed up and it didn't seem possible to warm him up. So in a way it was not a surprise to find him dead on Saturday morning. He wasn't that old and his fur was beautiful, even as he lay dead in his tank. We all wanted mittens made out of Collie fur!

Bye bye Colly Bolly Number 1 rat best friend!

Here's a pic of Col when he were very young.