Argh!

[oyceter]

So I was going to post on going salsa dancing for the first time, or on expertise as a measure of effort vs. talent, or a giant squee-full post on The Virtu, which ate my brain yesterday.

And then I woke up to find.... the cage door opened.

Holy fucking shit! I thought, still rather muddled from extreme allergies and waking up.

Bya poked his head out of the hammock and sleepily sniffed at me. At least he was still true to type and in the cage.

And then I looked at the room. Shredded paper and shredded random other things everywhere! GAH! I thought.

GAAAAAAH OMG YOU HORRIBLE EVIL RATS! I thought, as I saw the chewed holes in rachelmanija's bag of tatami kimono yarn, complete with random strands of yarn peeking through and one lonely ball sitting outside the bag, label torn to pieces. (fear not, thankfully the yarn itself is safe, no thanks to the rats)

Despite extreme anger, I managed to actually check the six million electrical cords in the room to discover that there was no fried rat body there, thank god and no thanks to their little rodent teeth.

And then I saw it.

My yarn! My yarn from my stash! My yarn from my stash that hangs in those sweater holder things you hang up in your closet! My yarn ON THE FLOOR IN A MESS!

"RUKI*! I am going to KILL YOU!" I yelled.

There were a few half-shredded labels, but most importantly... my yarn from the very top-most shelf was on the floor. My Claudia's hand-painted pure silk gorgeously dyed laceweight. My ArtFibers silk. My Jaeger Zephyr silk-merino laceweight. My Cherry Tree Hill hand-dyed sock yarn.

I raced over to carefully pet them and coo over them to make sure the evil rat had not mangled them, particularly the Claudia's silk laceweight which I will not even mention how much I paid for because it was just that gorgeous.

Ruki should thank his little ratty stars that my yarn is largely undamaged.

Then I raced around in a mad rush, trying to figure out which rats were still on the loose and if (heaven forbid) Ruki had made it out of the room and was currently terrorizing the rest of the house.

At that, several sleepy ratty heads poked out of the hammock. Ruki didn't even wake up when I poked at him to make sure it was actually him and not some cleverly constructed decoy.


* I am 99% certain that this is Ruki's doing, as a) he habitually and consistently attempts to escape from the bathtub and b) the other times the cage door has "accidentally" popped open (I now suspect Ruki of finessing this escape and others), I have panicked, only to find: Bya still sitting his fat rat butt in the cage, too lazy to even investigate the world outside; Ren huddled on the sofa or under the coffee table, adventurous enough to find places he remembers but then scared beyond measure at the wide world and unable to find his way back to the cage (which, by the way, is about three feet away); and Ruki. Ruki, running down the hallway, not just feet, but meters away from the rat room, much less the cage. Or Ruki, escaped from the rat room to the bathroom, where he plays circus balancing tricks on the edge of my laundry basket.

I knew I shouldn't have named him after Rukia. It is quite clear where his personality comes from. Also, I am certain that he knows he is the cutest of the three rats and takes mad advantage of this whenever he can.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh God! I almost had a heart attack!

Please do post squeefully on The Virtu, and I will squee with you!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I'm a terrible person for first thinking "Oh god! The yarn!" rather than "Oh god! The rats!" right? ;)

(Actually, it's probably because you started the entry talking about yarn, and if you HAD found little frizzled rats-on-cords, the tone would have been very different, so I already knew they were safe.)

(Still! The yarn!!)

[oyceter]

Well, that did jolt me into full awakeness just minutes after I got out of bed, which tells you something ;).

But your yarn! It is safe!

Must post more on the Monette later, OMG ate my brain totally am now mad shipper need full entry to squee more.

[oyceter]

Um. Haha. I am the rat-mom, and I thought, "THE YARN OMG!" before checking on the electrical cords.... -_-;;.

But... my yarn! My laceweight! I pet them and comfort them in my head (the yarn, not the rats).

Ruki is now looking absolutely adorable while sleeping in the hammock, but I am not swayed but his cute rat face!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Heeee. That gorgeous Claudia's stuff is certainly worth worrying over. This is why I buy cheap yarn!

Pets are truly evil. They make themselves adorable so you love them beyond reason, and then they wake you up at 6:30 eating your magazine and knocking books off the shelf escape and menace your yarn.

Also, I'm knitting socks now! I made a tiny test sock out of worsted, and then used up the last of my alpaca sportweight on booties for A's co-worker, and then I cracked on Wednesday and bought some pale green fingering yarn and started making up sock using a pattern out of the Sensational Knitted Socks book. It is SO MUCH FUN. And you MUST get a pair of those little lace-tip Addis... working with tiny yarn on tiny needles is a dream when they're so slippery. I am in heaven.

And, uh, I'm also making the ubiquitous chevron scarf (http://www.flickr.com/groups/chevronscarf/pool/) from Last Minute Knitted Gifts out of some Knitpicks sockweight as a birthday gift. I think I have spring knitting madness, help!

[chomiji]

Sweet evil little rats ...!

I'm convinced that one day I'll come home to find that the adventurous rabbit, Marshmallow, has finally made a hole in the gate across the bunny-proofed room's doorway big enough to get through (I have to keep patching it - he nibbles and sratches at his all the time). The little girl rabbit, Brownie, will be cowering in their den: "Mom, Mallow ran away and left me!" And when I find Mal, he will have removed the plugs from every lamp on the ground floor and created a new and improved den inside of the white couch that somehow we have kept clean and undamaged through two moves ... .

And he'll probably survive the electrical damage too - he got out at my sister's once and chewed through three cords without seriously hurting himself. My bro-in-law hypothesized that Mal likes the tingle of the electricity - "like salt on celery."

- Cho

eeeh

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I knew it was a bad choice to let Ben name "Cole" after some demon on a TV show. He does the "who me" cute thing really well. Heh.

I have nice photo from last year taken after he swiped the last but very needed skein of a burgundy blend that was supposed to let me finish a sweater, the sleeves. The shredded and boofed mass with dirt and twigs, and a couple of stray dried leaves, abandoned in some grass. Is it a nest thing with the ratties?

Glad most of the yarn is ok. :)

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

*hyperventilates* The yarn! SAVETHEYARN! I'll just be over here whimpering.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I love the descriptions of the bathtub antics! And the yarn. Oh, man, I'm still agog at all that gorgeous yarn linkage you sent me.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I'm glad the yarn was safe. And the rats, too, of course.

[heresluck]

YARN!!! I am so glad it is safe! (and that the rats are un-fried...)

[oyceter]

Ohhhhh the Addis! I went and got some of the KnitPicks circulars in 3s, so I'm going to try those first, since they're a good $10 cheaper, sigh. Though I am already pleased by the flexy cord. I'm determined to start on socks once I finally finish the baby sweater and the crazy mohair lace.

You knitting maniac! Wow! Oooo, what colors are you using for the chevron scarf?

Re: eeeh

[oyceter]

Pets! So evil, and yet, so cute!

Ohhhhhh no, he didn't do that with the skein! That's awful! The rats I think are more curious than anything, since they don't actually seem to want to chew up the yarn. They just seem to like pulling at it sometimes.

[oyceter]

Oh no, rabbits! I've heard they chew through pretty much anything, worse than rats.

[oyceter]

I whimper with you! I mean.. ok, yes, some of the Sugar & Cream fell too, but really... the hand-painted silk why why why?

[oyceter]

Ohhh, you should see him jump out of the tub every three seconds. The best part is, sometimes Ren will realize that he, too, can do that, try it, and then fail to get himself all the way up there and slowly slither down the bathtub side. Ren -- cute, but not so bright.

[oyceter]

Me too! I am still glaring at Ruki.

[oyceter]

Me too!! I'm still not sure how he got all the way to the top too!

[chomiji]

Yeah, like Tim the Enchanter says, they've got vicious teeth. We keep ours well-supplied with various wooden toys intended for large parrots, and fresh maple branches, which they love.

So what has been happening with your rat with the missing chompers? Have you been able to find enough things that he can eat?

- Cho

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Rats! So naughty! It could have been so much worse, though, and I'm very glad it wasn't.

[oyceter]

Thankfully, Ren's front teeth ended up growing back, and he's eating normal rat food now! Whoo!

[oyceter]

I know! They are so naughty! And by "they," I mostly mean "Ruki."

[chomiji]

I'm so glad! I kept thinking about him whenever I was getting supper (mixed green, mostly) for the buns.