oyceter | (no subject)

Alas, today has been a great disappointment. I went to the mall to look for the slouchy, flat boots I found that were on sale two days ago with my mom (that store didn't have the size) and this store didn't have the boots at all. So then I trooped over to Macy's to look for the brand of jeans that I got on sale last week to get another pair. It's hard to find jeans that fit. Might as well snatch them up when they're there! But the people at Macy's had never heard of the brand, and now I'm starting to wonder if it's imaginary. Except my jeans are sitting in my dresser. At least, I'm pretty sure they are.

ETA: And I tried to mail Totoro to

rahael at the handy automated 24-hour post office, but they don't do international =(. But I managed to do it at Long's. So Rah, it's on its way!

Btw, the automated 24-hour post office machine is really, incredibly neat. I want one.

And because some people asked for it... Big Rat Pictures, aka more rat spam!

I never pass up an opportunity to make people ogle at my pets ;). Mostly this is because most people look at them and think, "Ew." Poor ratties.

Fitz-rat pretending to read the Wired article on anime. In reality, he is probably contemplating eating it.

Fitz-rat preening while being scritched between the shoulders.

Fool-rat deciding to venture out of the protective cover of blankets.

Fool-rat either sniffing at my fingers or trying to reach for a treat. Probably sniffing, given that his paws aren't waving around in the air.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rats are very easy pets to care for. They need a cage, food, and water; the cage needs to be cleaned, and the rats need to be taken out and played with regularly, taking care that they don't escape and hide within the bowels of the sofa. They're very intelligent and affectionate, and you can teach them amusing tricks and turn them into circus rats, if you have lots of spare time and enjoy that sort of thing.

The big drawback is that their natural lifetime is very short-- four years maximum, and usually three. That's the other reason I stopped keeping them.

Rats are great pets if you don't have the space for bigger pets. Well, I think they're just great pets, period ;). They're really easy to take care of, like Rachel said. And I think they're fairly cheap relative to other pets. My biggest rat costs are their litter ($20/month or so, depending) and taking them to the vet. But they don't need shots or anything.

Plus, unlike a lot of small pets, they're really happy playing with people, if you like interactive pets. My roommate said hers used to ride on her shoulder with her (mine are too squirmy), but mine think I'm the coolest, largest toy ever or something! And they're pretty easy to train -- I actually didn't try with mine, but they usually come when I call anyway. I heard you can even litter train them.

Usually it's better to get two or more so they can keep each other company. And you just take them out of their cage and play with them a bit every day, because they do get bored.

The big problem is lifespan =(. I'm probably going to end up breaking my heart over them and stop keeping them for a bit until I recover. That's what ended up happening when I had mice before. Also, pet rats pretty much all have mycoplasma, so they're very prone to respiratory diseases.

Some of my fav. websites: The Dapper Rat, Curiosity Rats, and Rattie Ratz. Rattie Ratz is how I got my ratties ^_^.

Er, sorry to overwhelm you with rat enthusiasm ;).