Tree Bark Jacket

Q: What has 26 tails and eats headphone cords?

Posted by Keeva | Fun, Pets/Mounts/Collections | Saturday 13 February 2010 12:19 PM

I don’t often write RL stuff in this blog. I’m a fairly private person.. but also I don’t want to clutter up the blog with stuff that most people probably don’t care about. But this one has pictures of baby animals!
Anyway – apparently, I have high blood pressure.
When I was told that, I immediately though (fondly) of my guild.
These days, I don’t get much time to do the stuff in WoW that helps me to relax. I’m a bit of a weirdo – I love doing daily quests, grinding for rep, flying in circles for hours and farming herbs or ore. Or just wetting a line, fishing up some food for the bank.
With two jobs, progression raiding, blogging (I’m trying hard to be more consistent this year!), looking after the guild forums and website, selling our BOEs and restocking the gbank, attending to messages and requests, trying to get my heroics done and whatnot.. I often just don’t get the time. I miss it, and I think it’s probably starting to take its toll on me. I don’t have much time to myself anymore.
So I’d like to introduce you to my de-stressing companions: my ratties.
I have 26 rats. Not really by choice; I bought 3 lovely girls from a very friendly but very ignorant pet store, who must have kept the girls housed with boys (before I bought them). A week later, I had 3 lovely girls plus a litter of 11; a week after that, 3 lovely girls plus a litter of 11 plus a litter of 12.
3 + 11 + 12 = quite a few.

My own horde

Note: please, no comments about snakes, I will delete them. It’s not original and it’s not funny.
I’ve had rats since I was about 15. I had a break from them for about a year, but missed them too much (and so went to buy the three girls). They are just fantastic little pets – they each have their own personality, their own little quirks. No two are the same, and I love them. Whenever I feel stressed or sad, they are always there to cuddle. Or to distract me from my work or WoW stresses by destroying something. Bless them. Stress dissolves when I play with them, or when they curl up in my collar and sleep.
Meet Peg
Now, don’t tell the others I said this.. but I have a favourite. Her name is Peg.
When she was a few days old, her mother (being a new mum, and inexperienced), picked her up awkwardly and bit her hand by accident (or so I assume, because she’s not a mean rat). I didn’t notice this bite at first, and sadly it got infected. I did a daily head count to make sure they were all there and had full tummies.. and I found poor little Peg with a grey hand.
To cut a long story short, being too young for medication or surgery, all I could do was treat it with antiseptic, soak it a little, and see if she survived the infection. I wasn’t at all concerned about her having only 3 legs, because I’ve had rats with missing limbs (or tails) before, and they learn to adapt – especially if they are young. I was much more concerned that being only a few days old, such a nasty infection could easily kill her.
But she survived that night, and the next, and the next. She would womble around on her swollen leg just fine. Eventually the hand just kinda shrivelled up like a little peg leg (hence the name).

YARRRRRR.

One day when she was a few weeks old, her peg leg wiggled like a loose tooth, and then dropped off, leaving a little rounded pink stump.

Peg today, at 4 weeks

Now she’s 4 weeks old, and she’s a gorgeous little thing – but trouble. She plays the sympathy card all the time, looking up with those big wet eyes and you can tell she’s saying “…but I only have one hand! (sadface)” to try to sucker you in. Don’t be fooled.
So there you go – these are the guys who keep me sane when raiding is crazy and life is stressful.
If you see me getting around in-game with Whiskers or my giant sewer rat out, and maybe wearing my pirate outfit, it’s because I’m totally RPing RL – probably with a Peg on my shoulder.
<:3, ,)~
PS: Sindy tips coming soon - I just can't post them yet because our rival guilds are still trying to get her down, and I want to keep our head start on Arthas. Don't want to give them insider secrets!

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Comments (18)

18 Comments »

Comment by Kae — February 13, 2010 @ 12:54 PM
!!!

/heart melts. I had a total of 5 of them over college and early into my marriage (all girls, with dumbo ears). They’re adorable! Pet rats are like puppies, each with their own personality and all (providing proper socialization) wanting to just be loved. When they added Whiskers the rat to the game, I was ecstatic.

The only thing I dislike about pet rats is their short life spans.

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Comment by Kae — February 13, 2010 @ 1:02 PM
Oh, my husband just commented over my shoulder:

“Q: What has 26 tails and eats headphone cords?”
…thus the reason… you get wireless headsets.

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Comment by Keeva — February 13, 2010 @ 1:13 PM

We can’t get dumbos here

The short lifespan is why I took a break from owning rats for the past year.. it just got so hard to lose them all the time. But I just missed them too much, I had to get more. I love them so much

And you have a smart hubby. I always keep spare headphones – lucky!

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Comment by Kayeri — February 13, 2010 @ 1:46 PM
They are SO cute!! I would be too paranoid to try a rat as a pet with 3 cats around the house, two of them young and quite active.

I’m glad you have your furry little lovable stress relievers… Ours will pounce up on the computer desk and be settled on my chest almost before I know what’s happening, and I have a happy, purring content feline across my chest with a head draped over my left arm..

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Comment by Droodjerky — February 13, 2010 @ 3:39 PM
Hmm, thoughts of the worlds first Raiding Guild of Rats comes to mind. Yes, I want to see this Droodjerky´s last blog ..It’s a Small World

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Comment by Kae — February 14, 2010 @ 12:16 PM
One of my guildies has a pair of ferrets that sometimes get on her keyboard when she’s afk. We wiped to a boss once because we thought she’d come back and we pulled… her ferrets had cast a heal on the MT and moved her a bit.

Keybound abilities ftw.

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Comment by Brian Inman — February 14, 2010 @ 4:41 PM
A very nice touching story. I do feel sorry for Peg though even if they do adapt.
Brian Inman´s last blog ..Check Stats Of Other Players with Aion Liveviewer While Playing Aion

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Comment by Jasyla — February 15, 2010 @ 1:44 AM
They’re cute! I’ve never had rats, but I love anything small, furry and cuddly.

I feel the need to blog about my cats more…
Jasyla´s last blog ..ICC Raid Quest – Residue Rendezvous

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Pingback by Stress Therapy! « Falling Leaves and Wings — February 16, 2010 @ 3:32 AM
[...] February 15, 2010 Filed under: Just for Fun! — Beruthiel @ 10:32 am I read Keeva’s and Kae’s posts about their pets, and the value that they bring to their lives. It got me to [...]

Comment by Ylee — February 16, 2010 @ 6:47 AM
Awwww, it makes me miss my hamsters or pet mice. I’m glad that Peg pulled through!!

I have cats now who are almost just as good. I have one that curls up in my arms each night for raiding. One hand on the mouse, one hand on the G13 and a cat in between. Ylee´s last blog ..I still love u

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Comment by Vyll — February 18, 2010 @ 1:30 AM
I might be dating myself here, but this just brings up some creepy vision of Keeva in the lead role for the movie “Willard”

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Comment by Sara — February 19, 2010 @ 9:05 AM
So I was reading your blog and –

*distracted by rats*

asdlkhaslfkdh so cuuuuuuute *cuddles*

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Comment by Naissa — February 19, 2010 @ 10:42 AM
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaant! So cute.

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Comment by Lippie — February 20, 2010 @ 12:15 AM
Very cute, does the wet eyed peg eat good with one hand?

@ Naissa I Miss your blog!

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Comment by vysions — February 20, 2010 @ 5:07 AM
i love the story of peg…had me lol’ing

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Comment by Matt — February 27, 2010 @ 7:59 AM
Sorry, a snake comment, but hear me out!

We have a multidude of pets, a Boston Terrier, Pug, Ball Python, Chinese Water Dragon, and 2 (almost 3) kids. So, about 4 weeks ago, I had gone to the store to get food for the snake, and it happens to be a rat. I let him loose in Elvira’s cage, and Elvira comes out. She is shedding, and has zero interest in food. He hung out with her for 3 hours, and then my wife made an executive decision. We now have a pet rat, and his name is Mr. Marbles. And man is it truth, in so many ways…

edit – He is actually quite cool. He hangs out with me while playing WoW.

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Pingback by My Faithful Raiding Companion — March 10, 2010 @ 3:19 PM
[...] was inspired by Keeva & Kae’s pet posts and thought I would share a picture of my part angel/part devil cat [...]

Comment by Murinae — April 3, 2010 @ 2:12 PM
Aww how cute. I have a couple of rats myself. They are so sweet and full of personality. Great animals to have when you can’t have a large pet like a dog or cat. They are quiet, clean, and easily to sneak in apartments lol.

All the babies look like two of my rescued boys. Gotta love the fawn hooded variety

If you do need help finding homes, you might want to look for local ratteries or a rat club in your area, they are usually networked together with other ratteries and they might be able to help you find homes/foster them if needed, but hey if you can keep them all without a problem that would be great too

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