17th February
Well yes its been 3 months of rattie maddness. They boys are 5 months old now, and Reuben
is quite a bit heavier than Rufus. Rufus seems ready to come out and play earlier then Reuben is, so maybe he
is on his way to Couch potato status early. both boys love their Hammocks more and more... especially Reubs
Im now able to catch Reuben easier, and give him kisses and cuddles, he will sit for a short
while on my shoulder while im wandering around the house. Rufus is always ready for a Scritch and a cuddle.. although
i have noticed that he does like a game of chasey or hide and seek. Him hiding or running away and me seeking and chasing...
He will only do it when I tell him im "coming to get the Rufuses..."...
Both boys are now jumping onto the TV table, one night i could not find Rufus the gaps to
below the TV table were secure so but I found him under the table, he must have jumped on the table and then down the back
before I knew what was happening. they are very sneeking and somethime i dont notice them sneeking past me, one minute
they are in the lounge the next theya re in the bedroom.
the other day when i was giving them one of their favorite treats, PEAS..., they went into
a complete frenzy, i had Rufus running up and grabbing as many peas as he could stuff into his mouth, then he would race off
and either stash or eat them then come back for more. At the same time Reuben was sneeking up behind me and hitting
me on the Backside demanding MORE PEAS!!!! and dashing off under the sofa to eat or stash his lot.
They both now love to sit on my window ledge in the bedroom once the sun is almost down and
watch what is going on out side.. Im on my way this sunday to an information session with the WestOZ rat fanciers to
get some mor info on how to keep my boys happy and healthy... Ill see if I can get them out of the cage in time to go visit
with "Uncle" Don and "Auntie" Lena. They have only had one outing and that was to the Vet. last month so if it
is not too hot sunday ill take the boys with me..
18th February 2005
Saturday the boys and i had guests for dinner, Aunty Carolyn, Aunty Joo Lay and Aunty Joan.
they boys had a good time begging treaties from them, but Mama said no... they were given some peas to tied them over until
their dinner time.
Both boys apart from their begging were on their best behaviour... they had had a nice long
play time early in the morning since Mama knew they would not be getting out when the dinner guests arrived.
When Mama Got home from church sunday the boys were snoozing in their hammocks.. both
boys in their triangle corner hammock top and tail, they looked so cute... Mama had a nap, as both boys and mama had
their 1st ever Rattie Meeting with the WestOZ Rat Fanciers... at Uncle Don and Aunty Lena's house. They boys were quite
excited as this was only their 2nd outing...
They boys were on their best behaviour for the outing, and they got to see Aunty Brenda again...
they were both very happy to be reunited with Aunty Brenda... They got to meet lots of new rattie freinds and Mama learned
lots of new and interesting things about looking after her boys.
Numerous other ratties had come along, some very young and others like Wombat who were around
2 years of age and a rather large handsom looking little critter...
On getting home, they boys had their free range time and romped around for a few hours before
bed time... Mama was eating Salmon for dinner and Reuben was more than happy to let mama know that he wanted his share
of it too... so they had Salmon, and some greens and Apricot for dinner that night.
25th February 2005.
Over the week the boys have continued on their merry little way around the house, and continue
to look for things to get into.
Rufus has started a new game called "Rattie Yoyo"... Rufus jumps onto the TV table,
Mama Takes him off, and tells him no, Rufus jumps straigt back again, mama tells him no Rufus jumps straigt back again,
mama tells him no Rufus jumps straigt back again, mama tells him no Rufus jumps straigt back again, mama tells
him no this goes on for as long as Rufus is not board...
Then he will either run off into the bedroom or jump into his little cuddly bed.. (which
is actualy a lamb skin lined cat bed which ive covered with a t-shirt to make it a little darker)... they seem to like
having a little nap in there occasionaly and then jump out over the side and run around inside the t-shirt....
tthey continue to grow and Reuben is much heavier than Rufus is. Reuben has gained a
liking for the shower recess... he likes to run around in it and sniff at the bottles that are there on the ledge..
He is such a funny little fellow at times, very skiddish but if Ive got food he is the 1st
one out and about trying to get hold of it ... even if it means taking it out of my mouth...
28th February 2005.
Rufus seems to be more allert and active earlier than Reuben, who is normaly 45 minutes to
an hour behind Rufie... Im assuming that Reubs is maturing faster than Rufus...
Yesterday while the Rufus was rampaging on my bed and having a lovely time pillow diving...
(he likes to try and sandwich himself at full speed between 2 pillows or under one pillow). Reuben was sound asleep
in his blue hammock... at one stage he had his head compleatly tucked under the front of his body...
After he woke up he rummaged around and i found some fruit loop treats for them. Rufus
had his on the bed, and Reuben ducked into his "cat bed" hideout... After a while he came out to investigate
what Rufus was doing.. both boys were on the bed and occasionaly i went in to check on the little darlings... Rufus
comes up for a bit of a cuddle and then dives off, Reuben will occaionaly sit on my shoulder with his head buried in
my hair if I have it down...
After putting them back in their play ground, i headed in for a little snack of my own, who
should turn up, Reuben, obviously mama was munching on soemthing so it must be good. I had a pear, and he was not having
any of it. he was hoping either for pasta or peas, or more fruit loops. He tried everything to get something different,
climbed up onto my shoulder scritching the back of my head. nuzzling my ear.. "sorry Reubs, mama only has a pear
at the mement... its that or nothing."
so he slunk off to his stash under the lounge and had a nibble on the fruit loops he had stashed
earlier...
3rd March 2005
Both boys are getting more cheeky, they have now also found a new hiding spot on the
window ledge in my bedroom behind the verticle blinds.. They seem fascinated by this, not sure if they are able to see
what is going on outside or if it is because they can see their reflection.
Rufus Bit me the other day, not a bite hard enough to break the skin but it sure as
heck hurt... I think he may have thought that treaties were on the offering, but he got my Eye brow instead....
that will teach me for nuzzling him when I have treaties in my hand...
Reuben is getting more sleepier, maybe he is in a growth spert stage, he has stacked on weight
and is betting a real little plumpy. The vet did mention before they got any bigger they would suddenly get chuncky
looking and then lengthen out. Rufus is not at the same stage, maybe he is going to be the smaller of the 2, I had a
though that both would be around the same size. But i suppose like us humans we come in all varieties of size, color
and shape...
Its chicken and corn for them tonight so that will make them happy little buggle eyes boys...
14th March 2005
Oh im getting paranoid.. my rats are plotting against me...
The other night they were romping around together and having a good time. then they
sat still with Rufus nuzzling Reubens ear... Im sure he was whispering... and to my way of thinking this is how the
conversation went.
Rufus : Hey Reuben, ive got a cunning plan.
Reuben, Year tell me about it.
Rufus: You know how mama gets annoyed at us getting on the TV Table and lately she grabs
us before we make it up there.
Reuben: Yeah tell me about it...
Rufus: Well if we act together, you distract her and ill jump up and
while she is chasing me trying to get me you jump up.
Reuben: hey great plan How are we going to put this into action.
Rufus: Well i was thinking... If we sneek along the edge of the door frame, Ill
go first, and as we get to just the other side of the glass door you head towards her and distract her. Ill continue
along the edge of the blockages and get onto the box that she has left and then jump up.
Reuben: Ok that sounds like a goer.... lets give it a try....
So the 2 litter raskles head off on their little plan, little do they know that Mama
is watching what they are up to, and as soon as rufus jumps up mama springs into action taking him off the 1st box and lectuering
him about the no go zone...
Reuben then rushes under the lounge, mama puts rufus on the lounge and he quickly disapears
down to Reuben to revise the planning and stratergy...
They keep getting sneekier and sneekier each day... ill have to have eyes in the back
of my head soon.
Oh well thats the way the Rattie bounces.
21st March 2005
I had a very nasty scare on the weekend. My Ratties were free ranging when I heard a russling
in the bedroom.. on investigation i discovered that my 6 month old rattie Rufus had consumed 10 miligrams of an antidepressant
tablet i take....
MAJOR FREEK OUT. earlier in the week i had heard of one of my friends in the rattie world,
losing one of her rats to old age, and the only thing i could think of was that i would lose my Rufie too... 
I phoned the vet franticaly and told them what had happened they checked the toxicology book
they have and could not find any information on 
on the active ingredient, so she was giving me signs to look out for. I was beside myself... with fear and worry,
i burst into tears and phoned the Rat association im a member of and asked if they had any information on rats taking antidepressants..,
they said it was a first for them too.
they talked to me to calm me down as i was sobbing like a baby... and said they would
phone later to see how my baby was doing..
I was told to keep him in his cage and not let him out... watch for convultions, excessive
drinking and urinating, runny poohs and so forth,... They said within half an hour if anything major was going to happen
it would be then, 4 hours later he was perkier than he normaly is, was picking on his brother Reuben, (normaly it is the other
way round.... who by the way was not too pleased about losing his free range time too. but if Rufus was not allowed out it
would be unfare for Reuben to be out playing when Rufus was stuck inside.) so after 5 hours we asumed that he was not
going to be too badly affected. 
the president of the WESTOZ rat fanciers phoned for a check up to see how Rufie was doing..
He seemed fine ... so he noted this details down and said he would add it to the other research information they had
on Ratties and various medications.
Lesson learned..... dont leave medicaiton where ratties can get the,..
Ratties will eat anything they deam tasty
Ratties have no clue what they are consuming could be harmful if it tastes good it must
be good for you.
keep a closer eye on the little rascles...
30th March 2005
Friday was a day off work for everyone due to easter... The boys enjoyed having me home
for the extra time it meant they got extra time out of the cage. One morning when I got up, i found one of the boys
milk cartons in the litter tray with Reuben sitting about to climb ontop of it.. i watched to see what he would do.
he climbed up and summersalted off into his food dish... My boys are both very engenious....
the weekend saw Rufus and Reubens 1st experience of a thunderstorm. They were in their
cage when the lightning and thunder started so had their hammocks to snuggle up into.. as soon as the first clap of
thunder struck it was a rather loud rumbly one.. Both boys froze looking at me. I just spoke quietly reassuring
them i was there and it was ok, they then seemed to settle down ok until the next clap hit.. this went on for over half
an hour. so now they are aware of the fun sounds that the world has for them. they are now just over 6 months
old and still learning as they go.
The other day when i was napping while getting over a dose of flu the boys were having a rumble
in their Pocket hammock. I growled at them "Excuse me but! who is being Naughty?" both little faces pocked over the
edge of the hammoch as if to say, "Who us? We're just playing "
Yesterday when i got home from work the cage was almost turned upside down. their ledge
was on the floor covering their litter box, their seed container was upturned on the floor and Rufus was smirking in
the top hammock Reuben was sitting on the ledge looking at me as if to say. "It wasnt me mama"....
4th April 2005
What is it with rats and peeing in their beds... the last few times ive changed their
hammocks the next day when ive been home and having a bit of a nap on the lounge next to the cage... Ive noticed an
odd oder... on looking at the boys cage, ive noticed a nice little puddle under the hammock where there is a large lump
inside the pocket hammock.
I had only just washed and brushed the furr from the hammock 12 hours before.. Argh!!!
Last night while i was having a little snack of cookies and milo, i had got out one of the boys
favorite biscutts. and gave a quarter of the biscuit to each boy and had the other half...
not more than 5 minutes later Rufus comes sniffing around the plate i had the biscutes on and
sniffed each of the different varieties there was and made off with an oat one before i had time to react. I had also
left a bowl with their Chicken bone for the night out and those had all dissaperd very quickly too.
then that night they left a nice little surprise in my bed for me. half of the cookie
uneaten, and 2 chicken bones... Now wasnt that nice of them... Im sure they think they run the place and not me...
14th April
Well yet another day has fallen by the wayside and it is already half way through April...
wont be long and they will start putting the Christmas things in the shops... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh
My little ratties are getting big and cuddly, Reuben is now easier to pick up especially after
he has had one of his treats, especially corn or chicken bone..
Rufus was rather cuddly the other night, as soon as i put him down to play with Reuben he
stood on my foot to get my attention. and reached up to me to be picked up.
Who would have thought 2 little ratties could have become so dear to me... although
they are renound food theives... i cant leave anything sitting on my knee or the floor or on the sofa near me or they
nick off with it...
I had given the boys a chicken bone each last night and Rufus as always took his up onto the
bed to munch, Reuben took his under the lounge. five minutes later Rufus came bouncing out from under the lounge with
Reubens Chicken bone in his mouth, so i went and got one to give back to Reuben, only to have Rufus come bounding out with
Reubens bone, this went on for about 15 minutes, then Rufus gave up...
I decided to make myself a vegimite sandwich and was sitting happily on the floor...
then i feel a tapping on my leg, to find Reuben checking out what mama is eating and if i might be willing to share.
so i gave him a bit of crust which he raced off to eat... five minutes later he was back for more. so i gave him a little
bit more.. next thing i know he is trying to make off with my second sandwich which is about twice the size
of him... Shesh....
I then decided to have some milk and cookies only to have a 2 cookies stolen one of which
ended up in my bed.... the other is somewhere under the lounge or in Reuben and Rufuses stomach...
Earlier in the week i had given them a corn cob each which one of them ended up in my bed
too.... now how on earth could a rodent that is smaller than the size of the corn cob, (or very much the same size)
get it from the floor to the top of my bed. knowing that the corn is 3 times heavier than the rodent in question....
