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Feb. 1st, 2009
Well, it looks like the worst of the heat is over. We all survived, manage to keep the temp in the bedroom just below 30c - may sound hot, but it's well below the 40+ temps that would kill the fur-lined ladies. Of course, they showed their appreciation by giving us a cage completely saturated with piss. The #1 rule is "no rats out when aircon on" as small animals + spinning blades =/= hilarity, and the the temperature pretty much necessitated it running 24/7 as the heat built up in the rest of the house. Of course they expressed their displeasure in a very....liquid way. Even Paggles was starting to get cabin fever, and she loves the aircon so much she just may settle down and have its little frozen babies.
Fortunately a long playtime on Saturday complete with their splashing pool has gone a long way to earning their forgiveness :) We have a roller paint tub that we fill with water and let them play in as the ramp lets them set their own comfort depths - we knew that Beans wouldn't have any issues (water does not phase her. At all. In fact, she seems to view it as liquid dirt to be scrabbled in) but we were surprised when she promptly turned into a diving rat, going full pelt and fully underwater to fish about and investigate. Likewise Pinky was surprisingly enamoured - we sat there for a good ten minutes watching her wade about and duck her head under, swishing it about like a platypus shaking down the riverbed for grubs. Thumper seemed displeased that on the second outing it was not deep enough for her to swim in, Shola kept getting surprised by the sudden drop, and Paggles did her usual "dip my feet and tail and that is all", as she much prefers warmer water and a shower head. I put a towel about it to save the floor, and of course they all promptly ignored it, leaving tiny wet footprints all over the wood.
Looking back, I am so glad I bought the whole litter rather than the "one or two" we were going to get - I would have picked out Thumper and Penfold. And completely missed Muse, who, to be frank, worships Paggles. Everywhere Paggles is (bar playtime) Muse is there. Muse will mug other rats for treats and bring them to Paggles, and follow her about like an adoring puppy. Paggles is loving it - a far cry from when they were still settling out the pecking order and a love-struck Muse followed Paggles into the nesting box, only to back out in a hurry under a flurry of paws to the face with a confused expression. (Those of you who have rats - think of how they fuss over paper in their nesting box, stuffing it in. Now imagine a rat doing this to another rats face to stuff them out. It was hilarious, to say the least) It's really heart-warming - she took Maple's death badly and it's a joy to see her viewing us with ratly disdain (unless we have something she wants, in which case she has all the grace and self control of a golden retriever puppy) as opposed to needy clinging for attention. She's grown old utterly disgracefully :D
Other news is waiting for a call from Monash - applications closed Friday, so fingers crossed *crosses everything possible* that I get a call. If things work out and we get permission, I'm planning on taking my payout from Webstrike and putting a split-system air conditioner in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
torasin's office to keep him and the ladies cool...and leaving me free to actually leave the house when shitstorms of heat happen. I've been a virtual prisoner this past week as I don't want to leave the portable unit unintended (asking for trouble) and torasin is back at work. Finally got out of the house today, went to southland, picked up a pile of stuff and just breathed non-house air. *bliss*
The worst part was for large chunks of the day as it got nastier, I didn't dare go into the bedroom apart from sporadic checks on the aircon - even the addition of one person pushed the temp up, and we were wavering on hot in there with it going full blast. My office was sitting on an average of ~50c according to the gauge in here, and the rest of the house had heat built up accordingly. It just didn't fucking relent! (You know you're hosed when it's 30c and the sun hasn't even fucking risen yet!)
Apart from that, very boring. Been watching my brains melt out my nose, watching insane amounts of Buffy, watching my kikuyu grow and tending to poortorasin when he gets home baked alive - he had incipient heatstroke (if not a mild form) when he got home Wednesday, so there was much fussing. This weekend promises to be far nicer, and it's my long weekend *score!* so we're planning BBQ, pool, and other shenanigans
Fortunately a long playtime on Saturday complete with their splashing pool has gone a long way to earning their forgiveness :) We have a roller paint tub that we fill with water and let them play in as the ramp lets them set their own comfort depths - we knew that Beans wouldn't have any issues (water does not phase her. At all. In fact, she seems to view it as liquid dirt to be scrabbled in) but we were surprised when she promptly turned into a diving rat, going full pelt and fully underwater to fish about and investigate. Likewise Pinky was surprisingly enamoured - we sat there for a good ten minutes watching her wade about and duck her head under, swishing it about like a platypus shaking down the riverbed for grubs. Thumper seemed displeased that on the second outing it was not deep enough for her to swim in, Shola kept getting surprised by the sudden drop, and Paggles did her usual "dip my feet and tail and that is all", as she much prefers warmer water and a shower head. I put a towel about it to save the floor, and of course they all promptly ignored it, leaving tiny wet footprints all over the wood.
Looking back, I am so glad I bought the whole litter rather than the "one or two" we were going to get - I would have picked out Thumper and Penfold. And completely missed Muse, who, to be frank, worships Paggles. Everywhere Paggles is (bar playtime) Muse is there. Muse will mug other rats for treats and bring them to Paggles, and follow her about like an adoring puppy. Paggles is loving it - a far cry from when they were still settling out the pecking order and a love-struck Muse followed Paggles into the nesting box, only to back out in a hurry under a flurry of paws to the face with a confused expression. (Those of you who have rats - think of how they fuss over paper in their nesting box, stuffing it in. Now imagine a rat doing this to another rats face to stuff them out. It was hilarious, to say the least) It's really heart-warming - she took Maple's death badly and it's a joy to see her viewing us with ratly disdain (unless we have something she wants, in which case she has all the grace and self control of a golden retriever puppy) as opposed to needy clinging for attention. She's grown old utterly disgracefully :D
Other news is waiting for a call from Monash - applications closed Friday, so fingers crossed *crosses everything possible* that I get a call. If things work out and we get permission, I'm planning on taking my payout from Webstrike and putting a split-system air conditioner in
torasin's office to keep him and the ladies cool...and leaving me free to actually leave the house when shitstorms of heat happen. I've been a virtual prisoner this past week as I don't want to leave the portable unit unintended (asking for trouble) and torasin is back at work. Finally got out of the house today, went to southland, picked up a pile of stuff and just breathed non-house air. *bliss* The worst part was for large chunks of the day as it got nastier, I didn't dare go into the bedroom apart from sporadic checks on the aircon - even the addition of one person pushed the temp up, and we were wavering on hot in there with it going full blast. My office was sitting on an average of ~50c according to the gauge in here, and the rest of the house had heat built up accordingly. It just didn't fucking relent! (You know you're hosed when it's 30c and the sun hasn't even fucking risen yet!)
Apart from that, very boring. Been watching my brains melt out my nose, watching insane amounts of Buffy, watching my kikuyu grow and tending to poor
torasin when he gets home baked alive - he had incipient heatstroke (if not a mild form) when he got home Wednesday, so there was much fussing. This weekend promises to be far nicer, and it's my long weekend *score!* so we're planning BBQ, pool, and other shenanigansWell, it looks like the worst of the heat is over. We all survived, manage to keep the temp in the bedroom just below 30c - may sound hot, but it's well below the 40+ temps that would kill the fur-lined ladies. Of course, they showed their appreciation by giving us a cage completely saturated with piss. The #1 rule is "no rats out when aircon on" as small animals + spinning blades =/= hilarity, and the the temperature pretty much necessitated it running 24/7 as the heat built up in the rest of the house. Of course they expressed their displeasure in a very....liquid way. Even Paggles was starting to get cabin fever, and she loves the aircon so much she just may settle down and have its little frozen babies.
Fortunately a long playtime on Saturday complete with their splashing pool has gone a long way to earning their forgiveness :) We have a roller paint tub that we fill with water and let them play in as the ramp lets them set their own comfort depths - we knew that Beans wouldn't have any issues (water does not phase her. At all. In fact, she seems to view it as liquid dirt to be scrabbled in) but we were surprised when she promptly turned into a diving rat, going full pelt and fully underwater to fish about and investigate. Likewise Pinky was surprisingly enamoured - we sat there for a good ten minutes watching her wade about and duck her head under, swishing it about like a platypus shaking down the riverbed for grubs. Thumper seemed displeased that on the second outing it was not deep enough for her to swim in, Shola kept getting surprised by the sudden drop, and Paggles did her usual "dip my feet and tail and that is all", as she much prefers warmer water and a shower head. I put a towel about it to save the floor, and of course they all promptly ignored it, leaving tiny wet footprints all over the wood.
Looking back, I am so glad I bought the whole litter rather than the "one or two" we were going to get - I would have picked out Thumper and Penfold. And completely missed Muse, who, to be frank, worships Paggles. Everywhere Paggles is (bar playtime) Muse is there. Muse will mug other rats for treats and bring them to Paggles, and follow her about like an adoring puppy. Paggles is loving it - a far cry from when they were still settling out the pecking order and a love-struck Muse followed Paggles into the nesting box, only to back out in a hurry under a flurry of paws to the face with a confused expression. (Those of you who have rats - think of how they fuss over paper in their nesting box, stuffing it in. Now imagine a rat doing this to another rats face to stuff them out. It was hilarious, to say the least) It's really heart-warming - she took Maple's death badly and it's a joy to see her viewing us with ratly disdain (unless we have something she wants, in which case she has all the grace and self control of a golden retriever puppy) as opposed to needy clinging for attention. She's grown old utterly disgracefully :D
Other news is waiting for a call from Monash - applications closed Friday, so fingers crossed *crosses everything possible* that I get a call. If things work out and we get permission, I'm planning on taking my payout from Webstrike and putting a split-system air conditioner intorasin's office to keep him and the ladies cool...and leaving me free to actually leave the house when shitstorms of heat happen. I've been a virtual prisoner this past week as I don't want to leave the portable unit unintended (asking for trouble) and torasin is back at work. Finally got out of the house today, went to southland, picked up a pile of stuff and just breathed non-house air. *bliss*
The worst part was for large chunks of the day as it got nastier, I didn't dare go into the bedroom apart from sporadic checks on the aircon - even the addition of one person pushed the temp up, and we were wavering on hot in there with it going full blast. My office was sitting on an average of ~50c according to the gauge in here, and the rest of the house had heat built up accordingly. It just didn't fucking relent! (You know you're hosed when it's 30c and the sun hasn't even fucking risen yet!)
Apart from that, very boring. Been watching my brains melt out my nose, watching insane amounts of Buffy, watching my kikuyu grow and tending to poortorasin when he gets home baked alive - he had incipient heatstroke (if not a mild form) when he got home Wednesday, so there was much fussing. This weekend promises to be far nicer, and it's my long weekend *score!* so we're planning BBQ, pool, and other shenanigans
Fortunately a long playtime on Saturday complete with their splashing pool has gone a long way to earning their forgiveness :) We have a roller paint tub that we fill with water and let them play in as the ramp lets them set their own comfort depths - we knew that Beans wouldn't have any issues (water does not phase her. At all. In fact, she seems to view it as liquid dirt to be scrabbled in) but we were surprised when she promptly turned into a diving rat, going full pelt and fully underwater to fish about and investigate. Likewise Pinky was surprisingly enamoured - we sat there for a good ten minutes watching her wade about and duck her head under, swishing it about like a platypus shaking down the riverbed for grubs. Thumper seemed displeased that on the second outing it was not deep enough for her to swim in, Shola kept getting surprised by the sudden drop, and Paggles did her usual "dip my feet and tail and that is all", as she much prefers warmer water and a shower head. I put a towel about it to save the floor, and of course they all promptly ignored it, leaving tiny wet footprints all over the wood.
Looking back, I am so glad I bought the whole litter rather than the "one or two" we were going to get - I would have picked out Thumper and Penfold. And completely missed Muse, who, to be frank, worships Paggles. Everywhere Paggles is (bar playtime) Muse is there. Muse will mug other rats for treats and bring them to Paggles, and follow her about like an adoring puppy. Paggles is loving it - a far cry from when they were still settling out the pecking order and a love-struck Muse followed Paggles into the nesting box, only to back out in a hurry under a flurry of paws to the face with a confused expression. (Those of you who have rats - think of how they fuss over paper in their nesting box, stuffing it in. Now imagine a rat doing this to another rats face to stuff them out. It was hilarious, to say the least) It's really heart-warming - she took Maple's death badly and it's a joy to see her viewing us with ratly disdain (unless we have something she wants, in which case she has all the grace and self control of a golden retriever puppy) as opposed to needy clinging for attention. She's grown old utterly disgracefully :D
Other news is waiting for a call from Monash - applications closed Friday, so fingers crossed *crosses everything possible* that I get a call. If things work out and we get permission, I'm planning on taking my payout from Webstrike and putting a split-system air conditioner in
torasin's office to keep him and the ladies cool...and leaving me free to actually leave the house when shitstorms of heat happen. I've been a virtual prisoner this past week as I don't want to leave the portable unit unintended (asking for trouble) and torasin is back at work. Finally got out of the house today, went to southland, picked up a pile of stuff and just breathed non-house air. *bliss* The worst part was for large chunks of the day as it got nastier, I didn't dare go into the bedroom apart from sporadic checks on the aircon - even the addition of one person pushed the temp up, and we were wavering on hot in there with it going full blast. My office was sitting on an average of ~50c according to the gauge in here, and the rest of the house had heat built up accordingly. It just didn't fucking relent! (You know you're hosed when it's 30c and the sun hasn't even fucking risen yet!)
Apart from that, very boring. Been watching my brains melt out my nose, watching insane amounts of Buffy, watching my kikuyu grow and tending to poor
torasin when he gets home baked alive - he had incipient heatstroke (if not a mild form) when he got home Wednesday, so there was much fussing. This weekend promises to be far nicer, and it's my long weekend *score!* so we're planning BBQ, pool, and other shenanigans