Sakura of DOOM

I found some older pictures of Momo and Haru a few weeks ago, most of them from when the rats were a little short of a year old, with the exception the picture of Haru falling out of the wheel, which is much more recent. Hi ratses! You guys are super cute, and I still miss you.

( Embedded Flickr set )

( Gentleman Rats, by CB )

( Gentleman Rats transcript )

Because I reread all my old rat entries and realized I had forgotten stuff, and because I don't want to go to sleep yet because I hate that moment of waking up and then remembering that they're gone.

( By me and CB )

Haru's death is hitting particularly hard, probably due to my having expected him to outlive Momo, my worries about Momo being by himself, and the fact that I'm not getting rats after these guys. (At least for now. If CB and I ever have a space big enough for a rat room + cats...) I'm especially worried about Momo, who's never been this alone before. Hang in there, Momo! Please don't give up?

I got a big bucket and a smaller basket yesterday so I can bring him around with me in the apartment, but I'm not sure how much he likes it so far. He's pretty irritated with me already because I keep trying to clean him (hind leg paralysis means he can't groom as well as usual), but on the other hand, maybe having a warm hand in there is good for him? (CB wants to label the basket "Momo's RV.")

It's been especially helpful having CB at hand; I always feel really lonely mourning the rats because usually I'm the only one who has interacted with them significantly. CB hasn't really been able to play with them due to allergies, but he's put them in drawings and random notes to me and has seen or heard about various rat adventures, and he misses Haru a lot too.

Too bad there aren't people bent on breeding super-long-lived rats.

I haven't posted about the rats for a while... Most of it is because Momo's hind legs continue to deteriorate, which makes me sad. He's still getting around pretty well, but mostly via his front legs, with some flailing with his hind legs, and I need to weigh him again to make sure he's eating. I took him to the vet because he has a fatty lump on his chest (probably just fatty tissue) and possible lumpiness elsewhere, and my old vet said he looked fine while the new vet said he was overweight. Now, of course, I feel guilty about feeding them too much, though old vet mostly did not care about rat weights, so I will try to not feel too guilty.

Other than that, they are in the lazy guy rat stage of life. Also! CB's allergies are now much reduced. After two air filters and assiduous cleaning, what helped the most was putting a blanket over the cage. This was great for the winter, since my apartment gets pretty cold, though I'm trying to think of what to do now that it's getting warmer. Also, Haru has greatly enjoyed the new addition and spends tons of time pulling bits of blanket through the cage to chew off and line the igloo with. He managed to pare down a queen-size blanket to something roughly 1' x 1'!

( Giant photos )

Look what I got as part of my bday present!



(text to come when I have the original instead of a crappy phone photo to work from)

He says it is just a draft but I do not care because they are fat and squishy and so cute!!

I think the rats are now used to the new place and their new play area now. This is good, as it means they have now resumed their prior litter training. Actually, I am fairly certain they never forgot and Momo would just poop wherever because he was annoyed at the change of scenery.

Haru's exploratory adventures continue! I accidentally left the cage door open one night, which I discovered when I saw Haru running across the living room. Thankfully, they are big and fat enough now that they are fairly easy to chase down.

After I scooped up Haru, I noticed that contrary to my expectations, Momo was not lounging about in the cage and ignoring the opportunities of an opened cage door.

In fact, he was a few feet away from the cage, but when I tried to grab him, he completely freaked out. He tries to avoid me normally, but this time he was just running around in sheer panic. Sadly, he eventually dashed back to the cage, except I don't think he quite realized the door was closed. So he kept bouncing around the cage door in the hopes of making it back and leaving behind the terrifying, terrifying open space of the bedroom, and my getting closer to open the door just freaked him out more.

My current theory is that he took advantage of the open door but then was so frightened that he couldn't venture out in those few feet to make it back to safety. Poor the Momo.

Came down with my fourth cold of the year or so, which has unfortunately triggered my asthma. So to distract myself from not being able to breathe, have a rat update!

I took the ratses in to get neutered about three weeks ago; they got back kind of groggy but mostly ok. I've had two sets of non-neutered rats and Ed and Al were neutered before I got them, so this is the first time I've really got to see it in action. It's funny... they were fighting a bit right after the surgery, but most of the bad tussling has died down now, so it's mainly rat alpha posturing.

(Speaking of which, check this out! My favorite part is when she pokes them around 1:30, and when Rat #3 wanders in near the end.)

Dear my rats: why you no make me YouTube famous?

Other than that, their fur has gotten a lot softer, and, more importantly, they have stopped peeing on everything so much! Also, it took a while for them to settle down after surgery, but they are definitely a lot friendlier and lazier than they were before. I think they would have gotten to that point eventually after rat adolescence, but it's kind of nice to not deal with the bickering now.

In fact, both Momo and Haru will now stay still in my lap for half an hour or so as long as I am scritching them. They are so greedy that they keep poking their noses in for more scritches, and they decided my one hand scritching both their heads wasn't enough, so I had to devote one hand per rat. They are so sweet! They are almost up at Ren levels of sweetness, I suspect a lot because I got them so young.

They're still a bit shy around strangers, but they're not as jumpy as Ed and Al were, and they are seriously fond of sitting on shoulders. Or sometimes on top of my head.

Hopefully pics to come soon! CB just got a flash for his DSLR and has been experimenting on the rats.

The ratses—I feel odd calling them "ratlings" now that they are extremely full-sized—have generally been doing well, and they are as large as my other full-grown rats have been, despite only being four or so months old. They have such fat squishy tummies! So good for kissing!

Haru I think has been a bit depressed since Ed died; he was much less active than Momo for a month and would just sit in corners and mope during play time. I was especially worried when it seemed like he was gaining weight slower than Momo or possibly losing weight. He seems okay now; I gave him a little bed that still smelled a bit of Ed, which confused him, but also made him much more amenable to grooming by me. Maybe the combination of the smell + grooming was what he needed? Anyway, he is much more affectionate now.

Unfortunately, I came home last night from craft circle to find litter scattered everywhere and two rats being uncharacteristically quiet. When I took them out to play, they both crouched in corners and didn't interact, and eventually, I found a ton of bloody scrapes on both of them. GIANT RAT FIGHT ARGH. Momo's belly had a particularly large cut, so much so that I could see the layer right underneath the skin, and I freaked and dragged him to the vet. So now he has bits of fur shaved off and looks rather pathetic. Thankfully, it was fixed with surgical adhesive. But then... I came home to find that Haru had a similarly large cut on HIS belly and ARGH. It was midnight, and I was tired, and it seemed like the injuries weren't too bad. So the poor guy had his treated with hydrogen peroxide.

He seems to be doing ok, and it looks like it's scabbing over without infection, thank goodness. But when I took him and Momo out to play this afternoon, they both scuttled about and avoided each other for hours, hunching down and acting nervous and generally afraid. Amusingly, they would alternately run to me for comfort or protection or something while the other one cowered in a corner somewhere. They have since progressed to wary sniffing at each other, and are now sleeping on top of each other in the usual rat pile.

Oh ratses...

(Also, now thinking more seriously of getting them neutered. I've had other boy rats who did fine not neutered, but this is the worst aftermath of a rat fight I've seen. Please to not be clawing your brother's belly open, the ratses!)

(Also also, the vet yesterday kept going "He's HUGE!" re: Momo. Eh. He is? But he seems happy and well-fed! And they keep acting like I am starving them, what! Also x 3 I was very pleased when the vet commented on how well-behaved Momo was, as he spent the entire stay either on my shoulder, in my arms, or unhappy but at least quiet while I held him down and the vet applied the surgical adhesive. I am all, "Oh good! I hope I am doing something right in raising them!")

Exciting news! After this year's WisCon, con_or_bust is expanding to more cons! Basically, kate_nepveu is awesome, and going forward, fans of color should be able to apply to go to any con they like. Bidding is still going on, and they are short of the deadline right now. Check here for items with no bids and etc.

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I was also trying to brainstorm for a Con or Bust logo, and was thinking maybe a dinosaur with a unicorn horn and a "Con or Bust" sign? I tend to like my logos more graphic and less illustrative, but was wondering what other people thought. Also, important question: what kind of dinosaur?! I always think T-Rex, but that is because I like T-Rexes. Maybe the sign can dangle from the horn? Maybe the dinocorn is holding the sign with a hitchhiker's thumb? Maybe this is a crap idea and you guys have way better ones? /so not a graphic designer

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Fogcon POC meetup: I know some people volunteered to help with making and/or handing out flyers for the POC meetups. Could you guys email me at oyceter at gmail noting what you're willing to do? I can design something fast (and probably ugly), although I don't know if someone has a paper cutter or something for printing out half-size sheets?

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( Ratlings )

I've been playing around with my subscriptions and juggling things between what I read on DW and what I read via my RSS reader. It is so sad that I feel like I can't even keep up with less than 100 people, but so it goes. As usual, every day here is de-subscribing/ungranting access amnesty day.

Also, eventually I will start to talk about books again! Possibly when I start reading again, ahahaha. I'm still trying to figure out why my attention span still feels shot for fiction; I haven't been able to hang onto manga or fiction, although apparently Mythbusters and non-fiction about germs and parasites are right up my alley. I wonder if it is because I am socializing more offline and thereby using up more of the part of my brain that keeps track of people there? No clue.

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( Ratling babble! )

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( General cooking and recipe notes )

( Recipes: sweet and sour pork ribs, nappa cabbage and fen si, meat and veggie dumplings )

Haha, hopefully all this typing in Chinese will eventually make me faster than the ten-second hunt-and-peck I do for every word right now.