Ratablog

Jim is 2(ish)

We don't know exactly when Jim was born, but we estimate November-December 2003. Today seems like as good a day as any to celebrate his birthday!

Here he is as a tiny guy, ready for the long ride home from the Harrisonburg SPCA:

And here he is today, hanging out in his favorite grungy old box:

Happy birthday, Jimmy!

Rabskuttle looks for the yogies

Unfortunately, what Rabskuttle is getting is a course of Zitromax. He's been a bit grunty and sneezy, nothing major, but when I took him to the vet today, the lung noises concerned Dr. F. We did an x-ray, and there were patches on his lungs...nothing like Misto, but the vet thinks we're dealing with pneumonia.

I think we are catching it early. When Bob, our retired lab rat, had his pneumonia, he refused to eat and was so lethargic he was almost floppy. One thing I can say for Rabby, his appetite is just fine.

It's that time of year

With the Thanksgiving leftovers gone, it's about time to start on the Christmas pictures!

First up: Kanga and Roo.

Misto, Rab, and Arthur

Misto, with his baby food and some guacamole.

Rab, grooming.

Arthur eating yogurt. Don't be alarmed by the red spots...he had some cysts removed last week. Actually, they were sort of like rattie acne, and I wouldn't have worried about them excpt that he had some on his eyelid, and they were obviously annoying him. He was squintier than usual, and totally gunked up with porphyrin. He kept scratching at it, and I was afraid he'd end up with an infection. The vet knocked him out for a minute and lasered the cysts off, and since he was doing the ones on his eyelid, he got the rest of the face too.
So Arthur had plastic surgery, basically. Please don't laugh.

New pictures

I'm sorry we've been so quiet lately. At least this time I can say that no news isn't bad news.

I was testing a new compact flash card today, so here are some brand new pictures of some of the less-often featured rats:

Oliver in the hammock.

Roo

Jack

And a mood shot of George:

The light was coming in the window, so I turned off the flash. I wasn't trying to make him look sinister, I was trying to catch how beautiful his coat looks in the sun.

Zoe

We made the difficult decision to take Zoe to Dr. G for her final nap yesterday. Her condition had deteriorated such that she couldn't hold her head up well enough to eat or drink. I took this picture about an hour before we took her to see Dr. G.