Ratamania                  Early October Issue

Dear Diary,

I, (Sayuri, on the right) was rudely awaken by the buzzing noise coming from Meg's alarm clock at 7:30am. I had to ask Koyuki (middle one with the chocolate smudge on her nose) and Minami (on the far end with buff hood) to remind me to chew the alarm clock power cable next time I get the chance. I just can't stand the noise. Oh, don't I hate it when my beauty sleep is disturbed!

Though now Meg is slowly crawling out of the bed, I had to put a fresh face on to charm her to get me out of the cage for a morning run around on a sofa, and if lucky a nibble on Meg's breakfast cereals. I managed to herd my two cage mates to come to the doorway until we attract her attention. Sometimes it's so hard to herd rats as they run off  doing their own stuff as soon as you turn your tail to them! At last Meg got herself ready for her work so the time to sit down with a cup of tea and BBC Breakfast News. Gosh, how long does she need to get ready, eh?!

 

Koyuki, a Himalayan rat with up turned snout. That's really wired for a rat. She is the skinny one out of three of us. She is the longest one too.

This is me, Sayuri. Meg's boyfriend keeps on calling me Fat Face, but I really am not a fat face :-(

This one is Minami. She looks  cute, with small face 'n that, but I sometimes don't like her  because she steals my toy.

Oh, hang on a sec, I don't think she's getting her cereal out today. Boo. I guess she either doesn't have time for it, or the milk has gone off. I reckon it's the latter. Well at least she has a cup of coffee so this means that she will still let us out on a sofa for a bit.

I hate being in the cage when I am awake. Because I get so bored. I feel like twiddling my thumbs but unfortunately rats don't have thumbs so I can't even do that. I have some toys and the running wheel but as soon as the other rats, especially Minami, sees me having fun, she comes running to join me and disturbs me. I hate having a little sister sometimes, except for in a cold day when I can snuggle up with her.
 
 

Me (right) and Minami. I don't mind her, really.

I spent may be 20 minutes running around on the sofa, sniffing things making sure everything is in sound order. That includes Meg. Minami normally tries to dig into her rib cage, or in her sleeves trying to get her attention. She likes amusing her, where Koyuki would prefer to watch humans and snigger at them, just like late aunty Miyuki used to.  As for me, I like being fussed because it tickles and I also enjoy being spoken sweet nothings. That sends my teeths chattering. Oh, Meg is gathering her things and putting them into a handbag (I love exploring inside the bag!), so I think she'll be going to work any minute now. That means back to our cage for us!

I spent most of the day sleeping, grooming myself and others and pushing around the bedding. I can never make up my mind where i want to put them because all the other rats mess them up. I occasionally put the soiled bedding out of the nesting box, but only when I can be bothered. I love snuggling with other two, but it was terrible when Minami had her wheezing. Oh, the noise she was making!!! That was unbelievably loud that Koyuki & I had to cover our ears with our paws. Meanwhile she was on the Baytril medication, she was living in solitary cage for almost two weeks, which I must say, I felt terribly sorry for her. Though she had some better food than us most of the time so she shouldn't complain.

Anyway, when it was clear that whatever she had was not contagious, she was allowed to live with us again. She was still  making some more wheezing noise for a while but when Meg was away to Berlin, we came to stay in Meg's boyfriend's house and Minami got so much better. Meg's boyfriend gave us so much nuts and shoulder rides on various people and we loved the attention we had. More humans, much better company! Though some humans apparently run away screaming... I don't understand, I think we are cute once you get over the whole tail business. Anyway I love exploring new places, though I am not too keen to travel by automobiles.

Meg normally comes back with some food on the way back from her work. I wonder if she goes gathering these food during the day in the forest. I hate non organic vegetables because they taste horrible and they smell of chemicals. Though I might still eat it if I was a very hungry rat.  I recently discovered that sweet corns does not come in tins. They come in cobs and it has to be washed and cooked before we have it. Sweet corns are our favourite food, next to breakfast cereals and chocolate. I wish I can eat as much chocolate as I liked.        Meg normally prepares our food before she does hers cuz she say she hates it when we all line up to watch her eat her dinner from between the cage bars dribbling ourselves. I guess that's what you humans call guilty conscience, actually works well on her. But whatever she is eating looks so much better than what we have. That is so true. She says we can't have spicy food because it's not good for us and we wouldn't like it. Well, we wouldn't know unless we try it!

We are let out as soon as Meg's dinner is finished and we spends her most of evening watching the big box that changes in the colour and sounds. It has many people and things in it, and it changes every time I step on the little box with many rubber buttons on. How does that happen???  Otherwise she likes chatting into a small long box she puts next to her head. I sometimes can hear her boyfriend's voice in this little box  so I guess he must become as small as we are to fit. She likes reading and we like nibbling what she is reading. And before she falls asleep as she flicks the pages of her book we nudge her to let us back to our cage.