Dirty Rats!

As I mentioned in my last post, PopPop & GiGi added 2 "precious" little rats to our home for Christmas this past year. The previously un-named vermin have officially been dubbed; Fright (on the left, because she seems to be scared of everything) & Dora (on the right, because she LOVES to explore).

Though they have only been a part of our home for just over a month now, the boys are still willing to "clean" the cage each day and play with the "girls". In fact, the most interested in the "ratties" is Ben. He loves to stick his chubby little fingers in the cage (which Fright loves to ... taste) and he has become a pro at putting their food in their bowl. He however, does NOT like the feel of their little claws on his skin and will not tolerate them climbing on him. Toby & Seth have discovered that Dora & Fright enjoy hooded sweatshirts, so that is often the standard "cleaning" attire so that have a place to hang out til the cage is ready.

Dora got her name due to her numerous expeditions during the afore mentioned cleaning sessions. Though she wants to check everything out and moves quickly from one side of the room to the other, she is very happy to be "caught". Fright on the other hand will dart out and back in to the cage, always seeming to be measuring the distance and time it would take her to return to the safety of home. However, she has discovered one place she is likes almost as much as the cage...the dresser drawers. She will run under the dresser and climb into the bottom drawer, when you open it to find her she climbs up into the next and the next and then back down. It is nearly impossible to find and catch her (which she really does not like) once she gets in there.

Dora & Fright live on the dresser in Toby & Seth's room, near a rather poorly insulated window. So, being the animal lover that I am (not wanting to deal with 3 young men when they awoke to find a rat-sicle), I sacrificed an older towel to the cause to hopefully provide a little extra wind-breaker over the cage. Though I do not understand it, it came as no surprise when I noticed the ends of the towel had been pulled inside the cage and shredded. However, what was quite ... upsetting, was when I was doing laundry and noticed what they had done to the sleeves on one of the boys shirts--a favorite hand-me-down from BIG cousin J. Patrick.

I was furious. If those dirty rats had been bigger, I would have tried to figure out a way to make coats out of them. Then I thought about my boys letting the rats roam their room and even encouraging them to "hide" in the dresser drawers--which they have been explicitly told not to allow to happen. This thought only made it worse. I had to calm myself down by saying things like; "They're just dumb animals. What did I expect from them? I knew this was what they do."

BUT, I TOTALLY LOST IT! when I caught one of those dirty rats gnawing on the sleeves right in front of me.