Several events this past weekend.
First, Dale's mom spent Saturday night with us. We'd gone to a show about an hour or so from here and wanted her to hike with us the next day, so she simple came home with us and stayed.
Yesterday being our first anniversary, we had Stan and his wife Michelle over, too, on Sunday. We showed off the house, went for a hike up West Mountain which is where we got married last year, and served a very late lunch. I guess it was really dinner. We had pumpkin bisque (soup) and I made my infamous rice stuff which was at least as good as usual. (I found the chicken to be dry but the seasonings were pretty good.) The soup was spectacular. It was made in the crock pot. Crock pots are beginning to grow on me more and more.
Anywho, Dale then served us pudding, and everyone went home after resting and digesting a while. We then made "scotchies" and chocolate chip cookies (LOTS of them) and called it a night. My feet were killing me. I really need to figure out what's up with my feet lately.
Yesterday was our actual anniversary so we planned to have dinner at the Sirloin. Dale went off to work and I went off to Petco to prepare for another adoption: Two baby rats. This woman, Kathy, had her rat die months ago and searched high and low for another one. She ended up with a blue mink hooded variety quite similar to her last one and for some reason decided to breed her with a friend's male, expecting as she'd once had with other rats before, oh, about 5 babies. She had 18. EIGHTEEN!! They were born on March 15th and halfway through the births, Tazer Two (momma rat) decided to walk away. She'd had enough of that, Kathy told me. But she finished birthing da pups and then Kathy had to sit there for two weeks making sure they were all nursed because Tazer Two only had so many places for them to sit. Kathy was tired, I'm sure, but... poor Tazer, that's all I can say!! I mean, I can respect Kathy for ensuring the little ones' health and survival, but to be mother to 18 little munchkins must have seemed daunting!! Two babies went with someone on friday and I stopped in yesterday morning to make my picks.
I ended up with /three/ rats and a bag of oranges. Kathy's very nice, obviously an animal lover, and is interesting to talk to because she knows a little to a lot about everything whether critter-related or not. Ours is an interesting relationship because I know more about her from talking to her in one day than I do many of my lengthier friendships. (This could be true for her, too, given that I tend to open up to anyone who will listen, and also have a variety of interests.) Anywho, the little buggers are cuties for sure. I've definitively named one "Mya" and think I have two other names picked out for the other two: Pixie and Trinity. Not sure yet. Probably some variations will occur but they *almost* fit so I'm on the right track at least. I got them home and let them meet the cats... don't worry, they're still with us... and they looked at them like, "Uh... big rats?" The cats, well... Kitty was appreciatingly appraising the three little tidbits while the younger Sinclair sat there going, "Uh... new playmates? Or are they gonna be another tease running around in litte balls where I can snag them and get a closer sniff?" At which point he put an inquiring paw out and got his answer as I swept away the cage lest his claws extend too deeply into a tidbit's side. Drat, his eyes told me with a hint of strong disappointment, and Kitty just squinted that "I hate you" squint that she's so good at whenever I ruin all her fun. I'm sure he'll develop that eventually, too. Sigh.
So I set the ratties down on my desk, walked out to the kitchen to fill their water supply and was smart enough to bring a spray bottle with me. I saw a flash of tail leap off my desk as soon as I came back in and got two squirts into his fur before he disappeared around the corner. This warned me that he's finally learned how to sneak around behind my back, so extra caution in the cage setup is warranted because Kitty's stubborn, but is wary enough of me where I wouldn't worry as much about the new critters. He's still playful enough to not care one iota. And, I chided myself, Kitty's still a cat who DOES get up on the desk from time to time - you've seen the footprints, after all. So, yeah, extra caution is definitely warranted. So for the evening, I left them in their carry cage inside their future tank. That way the cats would have to get through TWO cages to get to them. Far less likely.
Before this, however, I let the rats rest a bit from their ordeal, and finally took (Trinity?) out and plopped her on my shoulder. She seemed well-balanced up there, so she stayed put for about an hour as I sat at the computer keeping watch over her sleepy sisters. This established, I decided to walk around with her, so I checked on Lancelot once or twice, did some stuff in the kitchen, and talked to my shoulder in hopes of earning both trust and bonding without scaring her too much. She seemed to take it well. Dale got home and said, "Uh... oh! Cute." LOL
But shortly after I put her back with her sisters, I found that Lancelot, my green anole, had died. I had an inkling something was seriously wrong a few days ago, but I didn't expect him to go so fast. He was still eating but he started looking like he wasn't, he was brown a lot of the time since we moved and I thought maybe he was colder since we've kept it cooler in here sans the drafts. But if that was it, he would have drifted upward toward the heat lamp, and he didn't. Just last week I took him outside for some sun and he brightened up some, but was still so sluggish despite the interest. Thought maybe he was homesick or bored or something. But that was short-lived, too. I don't know how old he really was, only that he was an adult when I got him and I had him 3.5 years. (August of 2004.) Anywho, he died happy. Saturday, he was so weak that he allowed me to pick him up; he sat on my chest for a while and then suddenly turned bright green and dove into my shirt and ran over my feminine aspect. Talk about an odd feeling - cold clammy lizard feet on one's chest is one thing but for them to poke into one's bra... that was different. Dale then mentioned the cold thing again, and I took it more seriously; he thought to put my desk lamp near the tank, shining right into it. That thing runs pretty hot and has a 60 watter in it so the cage heated up nicely. Lancie turned bright green, stayed green, ate a bit more, seemed thirstier than usual, and yesterday afternoon sat at the bottom of the cage near the heat for a while sleeping and watching me walk around with the rat on my shoulder. So, when I discovered that he'd stopped breathing just before we went out to dinner last night, I was a bit surprised but figured if he was green, he was happy, and he was still green when I found him so he must have died happy. (I won't remind myself that Guin was brown when I found her, otherwise I might draw related conclusions about her last moments and I prefer not to dwell on that. Selective reasoning, you see.)
Anywho, maybe my boobie made him have a heart attack? He did make some attempts to mate with me back when I first got him, maybe he thought his dreams had finally come true. To a human, I've got little in the front, but to a lizard those things could have been mountains...
Rats are sleeping again, and I'll be into work here shortly, gotta catch up on some stuff for a meeting tomorrow. But then I'm paying taxes and a sewer bill and coming home to bond with the rat trio. Heh, I sent pictures of them to Dale at work yesterday... I'd told him I was thinking one or two would be good, probably two. He never noticed that the pictures showed three. So he gets home, and I have that one on my shoulder. After his response to this, he asks, "Can I see the other one?" I'm laughing internally, knowing he hasn't figured out yet that I have THREE, not two, and say "Sure." So he peers in the cage and his face turns into a state of confused surprise moments before one of feigned perplexity. "Uh..." he says. "Wait a minute. One... two... but, you still have one on your shoulder... one... two...?" LOL Good thing I have a cage topper. LOL
Aight, off to showers I go. At least I don't have to worry about the heat anymore. At least, not once the rest of the crickets have died of old age, assuming they're not still reproducing too much in there. Peaches can stay warm in her shavings and rats live everywhere and cats have fur and warm couches to cuddle into. We'll be fine now. Plus, of course, NOW it's warmer outside. GAH! Stupid weather.
Loss of Lancelot, but I've got Dale and the kitties and Peachie, and just gained three whimsical little ratties, so life doesn't suck too much. I will miss him, though.
Wonderful Warmth,
~nv
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