Sunday 25 May 2014

Weekly Rundown: The Rat Babies Edition

Despite being REALLY long, this week has been really good. Particularly the last bit of this week.

You see, yesterday we headed off to the mainland to collect some baby rats. After the last of our girlie rats died we weren't really in a position to adopt any more. Plus all of them had developed mammary tumours which was all kinds of heartbreaking.

But we recently decided to use some of the space in the spare bedroom to store the big rat cage which had been taking up a ridiculous amount of cupboard space. And as it's out of the cupboard we figured we might as well fill it up.

Well, that wasn't the only reason.

Others include my decision to give myself a break from studying until next October, when the course I actually want to do is running, rather than just studying something for the sake of it, so having more free time in the evenings. The fact that I miss having ratties also came into it a lot.

So we picked up little Yoda & Wicket. Aged six weeks and very cute.




They're also very springy! Wicket in particular (the black one) has been nicknamed Wicket the Cricket! Owing to the events causing him to end up on the floor rather than the carry case we were transporting them in.

Yoda is slightly more outgoing than Wicket; he was right up at the front of the cage when we went to meet them and when we put them in their cage at home he kept begging for attention. He's going to be a handful.

At the moment they're both in our baby/hospital cage. It's actually a repurposed hamster cage but it's big enough for two babies and gives us easy access until they're slightly more hand tame. I think Yoda'll be there within the week, Wicket might take a little longer. I'll keep track of progress here.

Other than adopting little furballs of cuteness, this week has been more of the same. After submitting my EMA I've had a wee bit more knitting time, which has been nice.

This is the result:




I've got two more little bunnies to do and then I have to embroider their faces. I'd normally do that when I stuffed them but I forgot. That makes it trickier to hide the ends so I'm putting it off as long as I can!

I've finished reading Bored of the Rings and have moved on to Colin Dexter's Service of All the Dead. I'm enjoying it, but I struggle to follow through Morse's thought processes which makes it harder to solve the mystery on my own.

I'm also ploughing through The Bad Beginning. I'm hoping to start posting these a little more frequently than once a week, either doubling up (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) or alongside other posts. I worry about spamming people but I don't mind blogs that update frequently, I really enjoy having a wife range of posts in my BlogLovin feed.

As the baby rat names might suggest, we're still watching Star Wars films. Most recently was The Empire Strikes Back yesterday. We also got a trip to the cinema in on Friday night (more about that tomorrow). Oh and we're still working through Criminal Minds and The Two Ronnies.

Speaking of which, while we were off the island yesterday I found a copy of And It's Goodnight From Him. The title stuck out at me and upon investigation it turned out to be an autobiography of The Two Ronnies. As it was £2 I snapped it up. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

This week I've got a few things to look forward to, including a day off, taking photos for a concert and bonding with my new babies. And I'm hoping for some good weather for some nice walks with Tara.

6 comments:

  1. Wicket and Yoda are two fantastic names. How big are they at six weeks (never having seen baby rats)? Also thanks for allowing me to use your island photos at school and for directing me to those you took last May - perfect for showing erosion and a lovely close up you took of the beach made up of broken shells so the children can see what happens over time. So few children have actually ever been to a British beach at my school - you should have seen how excited they were when I took in a bag of shells!!

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    1. I went back and forth on whether to go with Wicket and Yoda as they were two of the first names I came up with when we talked about getting ratties again. And then I met them and they just *were* Wicket and Yoda.

      At six weeks old they're two of our biggest babies. In the past we've had them when they're teeny four or five week old things (about the size of a full grown mouse). Just now they're about three inches long (not counting tails); Wicket's a wee bit longer.

      Glad the photos will be useful to you. When I did my teaching placements most of them were in schools near the country/sea but I remember how fascinated the kids were in an inner city school I went to when they found out I took a boat to get home.

      There's something about children and shells too. I remember my mum having a collection of them when I was little. I loved playing with them.

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  2. Aww they are so cute and I love the names. I got Lucky when he was about 5 weeks old too and he was so small I had to keep him in a smaller hamster cage until he wouldn't fit through the bars of the bigger cage. Looking forward to hearing more about them.

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    1. They are definitely little cuties. I think they're going to become big boys, I can see they're going to be big boys. They're getting quite tame already.

      You can expect to see lots of posts about them in the future!

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  3. Cute rats. And cute knitted bunny. It's nice to have a little time, isn't it?

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    1. Thank you. :-)

      It's so weird to have a bit of free time. I felt quite spoiled yesterday when I was able to sit down for some guilt-free blogging time with a film!

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Let me know what you think. :-)