Hello!

haven't written anything here in almost a year! so much has happened since then. for example, in october last year, we adopted two male rats, Squeaky and Dennis. they came from a lady on craig's list. she had had Squeaky since he was a pup (totally lied to us about a bunch of details) and had allegedly found Dennis outside of a pet store in a bird cage. that part might actually be true. Dennis and Squeaky both had mites and pneumonia, but we took them to the vet immediately. they adjusted to their new family immediately. we wanted to have them neutered so we could have all four rats living in one big cage, but it turned out that Squeaky's real age was 2, and we figured they were fine by themselves. Dennis didn't seem too bright at first, and Squeaky was a sweetheart from the very start. he was kind of a mommy's boy, really. he'd always run under my cardigan if Dennis was bullying him, and he'd want me to pet him until he felt safe. he'd brux and boggle wildly, and groom my hand as a thank you, before running off again. Squeaky hated the candles on the coffee table, and would shove them out of the way and bite the stubs off. Squeaky died of a stroke on december 28th. he was the sweetest, fluffiest, and calmest rat I had ever met. he was buried the same day, in the backyard of Robert's sister's house. Dennis lived on, and still lives on. life as a single rat didn't slow him down. we're suspecting that he was always a single rat, until the lady found him and tossed him in with Squeaky. Dennis is over 2 years old now, and he is starting to look a lot like Squeaky did before he passed away. OLD. Dennis is fluffy and cuddly and very sweet, and it turns out, he is actually very smart too. Dennis gets special free range time on the couch, because he's a single rat, and the only one that will actually stay still. Dennis and I nap together on the couch sometimes. in march this year, we adopted 2 more males. we wanted one originally, as a cage mate for Dennis, but these two had to be adopted out in a pair, and they were a good match. at first. until we brought them home. after almost 2 months of trying to introduce the boys to Dennis, we gave up. Dennis was terrified of the two boys, and was showing signs of stress due to introductions. the two new boys, Herman & Smitty hated Dennis and wouldn't give him a chance. instead of sending the boys back to their old foster mom, we decided to keep them. Dennis was (and is) happier by himself, and we had gotten really attached to the big boys. we didn't want to bounce them back and forth between owners who didn't want them/couldn't keep them and their foster mom's home (they had been returned to her care twice before) so we kept them. they are loving their new home, and they are such sweet and friendly rats! very social and will happily greet people. so now we have three groups of rats: the girls, the big boys and Dennis - the single rat. so what's going on at the rat house right now? well, many unfortunate things have happened recently. Herman had an abscess that the vet drained, but it came back shortly after that. Herman popped it himself the second time, and it has healed really well since then! no more lumps on Herman. that wasn't really that bad, but a week ago we took Garbo and Dennis to the vet and it turns out they both have a tumor :/ we're considering surgery on Garbo, but not on Dennis, who is too old and has had respiratory issues on and off. we're lucky he's still here, and surgery might not even prolong his life. Nixon, Smitty and Herman are all lump free. for now, that is. someone recently asked me about this blog, and while I was on blogger, I thought I'd type down some sort of an update. I'm thinking about closing this blog, because, as you already know, I don't really post here anymore. I just can't find the motivation to run this blog anymore, especially since in the last year I've acquired so many online friends who also have rats, that I feel like I don't need an outlet for my rat ramblings as much anymore. I finally know people who don't mind me talking about rats, who also have rats and talk about their rats. but thanks for reading! Jenny, Nixon, Garbo, Smitty, Herman & Dennis.