Ratablog

Intros, Day 2

In a nutshell: Intros didn't go as smoothly tonight as they did last night. I took the three boys into the tub, with no vanilla on them, and everything was OK for about ten minutes. Then Rufus and I think Kado got into it.

I say, "I think," because the moment they chose to squabble was the same moment I chose to look at my watch (on the sink) to see how much time had elapsed. Glance, then squeeking & tumbling and I used the dustpan to separate Rufus from the tumbling mass of rat-manity in the tub. All three boys were in the same area, but I think it was Kado he was rolling around with.

Things went pretty well for another 15 minutes or so. There was definitely some sidling by Rufus, mostly toward Artax, but also toward Kado. Kado would frequently "pin" Rufus; I thought he was protecting him from Artax. Also, Rufus's tail would frequently writhe, usually when Artax was near him. Both Artax and Rufus would get puffy at times; it's harder to tell with Kado when his hair is puffy and when it was just naturally kinda being fluffy.

I should also mention Artax seems to bite a lot (even biting Kado) but didn't break the skin. Once he even bit and held Kado's foot when Kado was walking by him.

To be honest, I probably projected too much. At times I thought Kado was being friendly or protective toward Rufus, particularly when he seemed to be putting himself between Artax and Rufus.

I almost cut it short at the 28-minute mark, because Kado and Artax were at one end of the tub and Rufus was at the other, but just as I decided to do so Artax headed toward Rufus. It looked as if a squabble was going to develop, but the countdown timer started beeping at the 30-minute mark and that distracted everyone. I decided to start the timer again, more just to keep track of the time rather than to give them another 30 minutes, and separate them when they retreated to opposite sides of the tub.

I never got the chance. Just a few minutes after restarting the timer, Rufus was sidling up to Artax when Kado came to his rescue--or so I thought. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but I think Kado tried to flip Rufus and Rufus didn't want to be flipped. It took me a couple of tries to get the two boys separated (Artax's getting his nose in there didn't help) but I did so, then I scooped up Rufus with the dustpan and held him there with my welding-glove covered hand and put him away. Kado and Artax got the same less-than-distinguished trip to their cages, and I waited about thirty minutes before checking them out for any injuries.

I think Rufus lost a little fur, but I neither saw nor felt any cuts or injuries on any of them. We'll give it another shot tomorrow night, but I think we'll dab some vanilla on them again.

Posted by Publius at May 22, 2006 09:09 PM