The young'uns birthday

So I am kind of a bad pet mommy at times, apparently. Today is Glitter and Cupcake's first birthday. I totally forgot. I don't know why. It could be because I haven't been feeling well today. It could be because I have spent approximately 70% of the time I've owned them being frustrated at them for a variety of reasons. It could be that I have been thinking more about Monster lately. I don't know. But today is their birthday, and they actually got a present a few days ago, even though I didn't mean to get it for this occasion! I ordered a new hammock for them from a really nice Etsy shop I've ordered from before. This one has four exits, so they shouldn't be inspired to chew any extra holes in it (they have a tendency to "remodel" pretty much any hammock or house they've ever had, because they like having multiple exits.) This one's also cool because they can sleep on top, too- it's called a "double bunk."

Anyway, in honor of their first birthday, here are some pictures of the babies when they were little, and now that they are grown up. Hopefully now that they are a year old they will stop causing me so much grief! And it would be nice if they were a bit friendlier, too. : )

The day I got them, four weeks old

Glitter meets Quincy for the first time, and thinks she is her momma

Cupcake sitting on her water bowl, when she lived in the "baby cage"

Little miss Glitter, enjoying some noodles

Huddling together on their first field trip to the big cage (Quincy and Monster were outside the cage playing. When they found out the babies were in their cage, they were NOT HAPPY! They bopped them through the bars!)

Cupcake in the doorway of the last hammock they had (and ruined)

Glitter enjoying a tortilla chip

Glitter checking out her stocking at Christmas

Cupcake and her rawhide candy cane

Glitter likes my new bathrobe

Just havin' some bread 

 

New hammock!

This hammock is Glitter-approved.

Loki!

My parents' 26 anniversary is tomorrow (Valentine's Day!) For their anniversary, my mom got a new puppy. She has been wanting one a long time- we used to get a puppy every three years, almost like clockwork. The last one we got was Elwood, the basset hound, and that was about five years ago. Anyway, she has been pretty insistent that she wanted a Corgi (maybe she will get one some day), but in Sunday's paper there was an ad for Papillon-Pomeranian mix puppies. And the one that my mom got is absolutely perfect. He knows who his momma is- I was in the car with them yesterday and every time my mom talked, he looked at her. He likes to cuddle, lay his head on your arm or your shoulder (he hides his face in long hair!) He was almost all the way on my shoulder last night! I have only heard him whimper twice. He even came to Bible study with us last night, and behaved perfectly. You wouldn't have known he was there, except every once in a while, when he got passed to a new person, you'd hear someone say "awwwwwwww" really quietly. It sounds weird to say that a puppy is an answered prayer, but he really is. He has only been home since Monday night and he has already brought so much happiness to my family. The only thing that's not perfect about him? He doesn't live with me!

Momma and her new buddy. She looks so happy!!

I am in love with this face. 

Loki and Sissy (I am "sissy" to all the dogs. My dog Diego knows to go find me when you tell him "go find Sissy!")

I collect walruses. I thought it would be fun to see if Loki was bigger than one of my stuffed walruses. He is not. I sat him down by the walrus, he took one look at it, and bit it. Ha!

The girls are home!

Quincy and Monster are home! And they are awesome. They are very small still- so small that when I put them in their cage, they crawled right back out through the bars. They spent a large part of yesterday in a Rubbermaid tote (with bedding, water, food, and a baby hat to snuggle in) so they could not escape while we figured out what to do with their tiny selves. My wonderful grandfather and equally amazing uncle spent "like, three hours" attaching some mesh wire to the girls' cage, and covering up the parts where they ran out of wire, making their cage completely escape free- though it does look a bit like a tiny maximum security prison now. Quincy and Monster do not seem to mind, though, because it makes it easier for their tiny feet to climb around the cage (Quincy is the climber- Monster pretty much just runs around looking at everything with her face twitching, like she's some kind of addict.)

They are both very cute and sweet. Monster is mostly hairless right now, though- apparently because of some genetics, all her hair fell out. It should grow back in, and it will either stay forever, like her sister's, or it will fall out every once in a while throughout her life. Amanda asked if I still wanted to take her home because she is baldy. I said of course, I would not reject her just because she's a bit of a weirdo. She now fits her name in a different way, though. I mean, there's a mostly hairless, twitchy, red eyed baby rat running around in that cage. She kind of looks like a little baby monster. Quincy, on the other hand, has a lovely coat and is not a freak at all. She is more cuddly than her sister- completely content to sit on your lap and snuggle. Monster would rather explore. She's not unfriendly, just different. And they are both in a puppy-like nibbling stage, constantly biting fingers, trying to figure out if they're food. It doesn't hurt, though- I can barely feel it. Anyway, here are some pictures!

Introducing.........

Monster, and....

Quincy!

Sorry their debut is so blurry. Hopefully next week they will be a little less camera shy. Amanda the Rat Girl says that they should be able to come home in about two weeks, if not a little sooner (depending on how well they take to solid food, which they start this week)!

Quincy and Monster have been found!

Well, I have some fairly exciting news. At least, I think it's exciting.

On Monday morning, I was spending my usual morning computer time browsing the interwebs for all kinds of stuff, and for whatever reason I decided to check the status of a craigslist ad I had bookmarked regarding some pet rats for sale. The link no longer worked, but I took a look at the pets section of the Louisville ads, just in case. Lo and behold, there was a posting from 12:55 that morning regarding some newly born baby rats. They were born April 15th, and the litter consisted of three girls and four boys. There were pictures on the ad, and I fell in love. The pics were taken when they were coming up on a week old- they looked like newborn kittens, with squinty eyes and pink noses- and long rat tails. You could tell what most of their fur was going to look like. I sent the seller an email, telling her I was interested in reserving two of the girls (baby rats can't leave their mommies until 4-6 weeks of age) and asking about the price. I went to work Monday thinking I probably wouldn't hear back from this person for a day or two, but when I got home, there was an email waiting for me, listing a great price, and saying she'd be happy to reserve two of the girls for me! I wrote back and told her I'd take them. She actually lives a few minutes from my home, and apparently we have one mutual facebook friend. Anyway. I am extremely excited about this- I had been hesitant about buying from a pet store because a.) you can't guarantee the age, and b.) they probably aren't handled very often. The seller says the babies are being handled every day, and should be able to come home some time in the few days following my birthday, which is great because I don't want to wait very long! She will send pictures this week and for the following two weeks, to show their progress. I saw pictures of them when they were newborns and they grew so much in that first week! When they were first born, they were pink and hairless and a bit translucent- you could see the milk in their bellies. It was a little creepy. They are definitely less freakish now, and I've seen pictures of the sellers pet rats (fully grown) and they can only be described as precious.

So as you can see, I'm quite excited. I will post pictures as soon as I get them. I can't wait until they can come home!

I'm naming them Quincy and Monster, in case you were wondering.

We have been fine.

Not much is going on in our lives right now, so there's not much to blog about. I've been working, Brandon's been working. I've been trying to keep up with house work, Brandon spent his birthday money on a guinea pig cage (and pretty much talked me into spending an extra *mumble, mumble* dollars on it for him, even though I'd already got him presents.) Guinea Pig seems pretty happy with it. It's so big you could take a bath in the base of it. And it has a shelf with a ramp for extra space, and Guinea Pig likes to hide out underneath it. She's become a lot less interesting since moving into the big cage, though. Brandon says she's sleeping the same amount, it's just that she has more space in which to do it now. We are considering getting a second piggie to keep her company, but I insist on getting my pet rats first. Have I mentioned the rats? If not, I'll mention them now.

I've thought rats sounded like an interesting pet since I read the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (it's really good and an easy read.) Stargirl has a pet rat named Cinnamon that rides around on her shoulder. That sounds pretty cool. Rats make really good pets, and are much more social, friendly, and talented than other small pets like hamsters (or guinea pigs, for that matter.) They are happy to see you, don't run away when you try to pick them up, and can even learn their names and come when you call them. That's the kind of pet I want- the kind of pet I miss. I desperately miss my dogs. I could never have a pet like a rat because of the dogs...but now that I am not allowed to have my dogs, I figure I might as well get a rat. Or two. Rats are so social they need someone to keep them company at all times, so everyone recommends you keep them in pairs. And my philosophy is, the more pets the better.

So I am pretty much demanding I get a pet rat or two for my birthday. Ok, "demanding" sounds a little harsh", but we have the cage (Guinea Pig's old one) and the bedding (they use the same kind as you-know-who) so why not? It's what I want. And they're only like, twelve dollars each. I could have a rat farm with the money I spent on Brandon's birthday (a rat farm sounds a little unsanitary.)

Enough about small household rodents, though. I've got some time on my hands today- Brandon gets off at 7 pm, and I'm off work. I will eventually get off the computer and get some cleaning done. We are trying to have fewer disagreements about "chores" and what exactly our responsibilities are by getting organized. I have this fabulous book- Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook- that tells you EVERYTHING you could possibly need to know about running a house. It tells you how to maintain, clean, take care of, and repair everything, room by room. It tells you how to effectively organize, what different kitchen tools are, and how to prepare for emergencies. Everything is in this book! It's bigger than most Bibles and costs about $40, but it's so worth it. Anyway, my point is that there is a handy dandy checklist for cleaning and taking care of your home in the beginning of the book. There's a daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal checklist- and then a checklist for spring and fall cleaning, too. So I split up the lists by who's responsible for what, and printed them off. Hopefully having a list will help me stay on top of things, and seeing that my lists are much longer than his will encourage Brandon to help out. And I'm totally not saying that to be mean. I will report back on the success of our little plan. Martha Stewart is amazing and when it comes to domesticity, she has it together more than most of us do. Hopefully her guidance will help us.