I've had a desk full of peed-on newspaper pretty much every day for the past couple of months. This is because I got tired of mopping up pee-puddles on my bare desk every two seconds that I sat there. I refused to confine Lisa to her cage of course, because, well, it's not fun for either of us to have her sitting in a pile of litter and food all day long, staring at me through the glass, glaring when I eat and she can't steal any.
So, last night I began to search for some new ideas. Rat diapers? Yeah, like those would even stay on!! Sounded like more of an annoyance to the both of us. Then I stumbled across this site.
It's obvious how much the rats mean to this person, so I took an immediate liking to the tips on the site. It was thus with great interest that my eyes alighted upon the idea of covering a table with a beach towel. A TOWEL!! Why hadn't I thought of that?!
Well, I may have at one time, now that I have tried it this morning. Turns out that Lisa sees the towel as something for her cage, not something to run around on and absorb pee with. And, she also thinks it is a rather fun game to ignore my scowling and "no's" with more aggressive digging and pulling at the towel. I blocked off the windowsill edge with her small travel cage, which I got a disapproving look for, followed by a rather skillful half-attempt at moving the cage out of the way to continue her naughtiness.
Next, I threw some old, smaller towels that I use specifically for her anyway. These were placed on top of the large purple one so if she did manage to dig one up, so what. I watched as she very quickly dragged them into her small cage and proceeded to position them around herself, glancing up at me occasionally to see if I'd take them away. I didn't. Then she sat there, blinking one eye at me. I looked away just long enough to peripherally see her dart into her tank and hide under the box. The other small towels remain untouched.
I think she's getting even with me for not remembering to save her a bit of my pumpkin muffin this morning. Summer drains me of appetite, and consequently, she gets to steal less. I think she's feeling a bit persnickety about the situation.
At any rate, she isn't leaving drops of pee all over my desk right now, which was my goal. Making her happy again appears to require some kitchen activities. I don't like being disowned and I like her moping even less.
I did take this opportunity to steal back the towels from her small cage, however, and proceed to clean it properly. Now I just have to clean Pippin's cage and I can go swimming!
~w
No comments:
Post a Comment