It’s Been Forever…
It’s been over a month since I’ve updated the girls’ blog, so here I am.
For an exciting bit of news, I e-mailed Rattie Ratz Rescue (RRR) inquiring about their adoption application and showing interest in two of their available girls. Meet Mocha, a three-month-old agouti girl who would become Berlin, and Hazelnut, a three-month-old faun girl who would become Lyon. It’s quite possible that, should they still be available for adoption, they will become a part of our family! I am very, very excited about this prospect, and will update as soon as I get their e-mail back; you have no idea how many pins and needles I’m sitting on waiting!
That being said, Paris and London are doing absolutely fab. I’m especially proud of our most recent encounter! I ended up taking a trip back to my old high school, where I wanted to show them off to a teacher I’d had when I went to school. They immediately drew in a crowd of teachers and freshmen alike, all who wanted a chance at holding one of the girls. I wasn’t at all put-off by the idea of letting Paris be “passed around,” considering she’d always seemed like the more sociable of the two, and she is certainly the more patient/tolerant of the pair. But I decided that I would give London a chance to be out - for one, it’d help socialise her further, if necessary, and for another, I didn’t want Paris to be the only one that received love and praise from their admirers. Into the hands of a student, she went! I stood there on guard, prepared to take her back should anything get out of hand… but I was pleasantly surprised.
London and Paris matched each other in sociability. London might have even surpassed Paris in that aspect, which absolutely blew my mind. The both of them were drawing laughs out of the “audience,” climbing up shoulders, burrowing through hair that was let down over students’ shoulders, etc. I had been prepared to usher a warning or at least utter an apology for London’s tendency to nip, but instead had received one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had since I became their caretaker.
I remember the night I got them, the day after, the assessing of their behaviours and personalities and of their physical condition; it had, at the time, seemed almost hopeless. They were small and “shrimpy.” They were handshy. They were nervous. London nipped and occasionally bit. The problems seemed endless, and though I tracked their progress here, and in conversations with friends and family, I still never expected it to reach this level of success. The both of them, now, are bright-eyed and plump, large and looking like full-grown rats (remind me to post some updated pictures soon!). They’re no longer handshy - still nervous about being taken out of their cage, but once they’re out, they’re bold little buggers. London no longer bites or nips, even through the bars. It’s just remarkable how far they’ve come, and extremely rewarding.
