RIP Cricket and Atticus

Around spring break time I noticed Cricket had a mammary tumor.  It wasn't very big and she was acting normal, so I left it.  Fast forward 6 months and the tumor is so large she is almost unable to reacher her feet to the ground.  I decided to take her in to ahve her put to sleep.

I prepared the boys ahead of time that Cricket was probably not coming home with me, that she was going to have to be put to sleep so she can go to Heaven and she would be healed again.  Porter got quiet through snack time and was a bit mopey.  I hope he wont' take it too hard.

I took Atticus with me, because he has been listless, breathing heavily, lost weight and his fur was soo dull.  

The vet said that even though they were only a year and a half, rats ages are in "months....24 months is equivalent to an 80 year old.  So at a year old they're around 40 years in human age.  Makes more sense.   Crickets tumor could be removed, but would be $3-400 and he said that sometimes the tumors begin to grow back as soon as the sutures are healed.   Atticus had a bacterial infection that affects rats the way TB affects humans.  Basically, he'd never 'get over' being sick.   It was a respiratory issue and he said he could be put on antibiotics for 3 weeks but likely would need multiple courses of antibiotics. So, I opted to have Atticus put to sleep as well.

Oddly, I felt really sad about it.  They're RATS for petes sake, but they're living creatures with personalities and have been a part of our family.  

Unfortunately it cost friggin $125 to have them put to sleep!  That was after declining to have them cremated at $20 each!  So, I have two dead rats in a cat carrier in the dining room waiting for the boys to get home from school to say goodbye and have a proper burial.  My grandma cracks me up.... said "D-Con would have been a lot cheaper, Nic.... why do you have to love animals so much?" Yeah.... I know.....

Spring Break "Staycation"

Okay so it hasn't really been a "Staycation" as much as "days we don't go to work or school so we kind of just loaf around and do random things".  Ick.   I had hoped to plan some actual activities for the boys this week (aka... going fun places like a museum etc) but at 36 weeks pregnant I'm just slightly exhausted.

Monday we ran to the post office (I sold a book on Amazon and ooops forgot to mail it!!) and then picked up McD's and ate at the park.  The boys had fun and I guess that's all that matters.  I attempted to get them to nap but Hudson was the only one who succumbed to sleep.  Meaning- I didn't nap therefore I was really grumpy that evening.

Today we attempted to have a big playdate with some friends but woke up to rain and storm.  Then one friend wasn't feeling well and had to be around home for a serviceman, and I didn't hear from the other, so I told Jess to come on over and I made myself decent and headed to Meijer to pick up some snacks, milk etc... On the way there I ran into Sadie at the end of our road- turns out she was still coming over, rain and all!  So she and her 3 boys joined us at Meijer and then we spent the afternoon at my house.  It wasn't too bad for 8 kids in the house!  It did get sunny early in the afternoon so the big boys got to go outside and play.

Jess and her kids hung out until nearly 4pm and once Ryan got home at 4:15 I laid down for a 2.5 hour nap!  EEEK!  I was exhausted and my feet were swollen and hurt.  The boys were exhausted too, and bedtime tonight was a MESS!  I had hoped to go visit a friend and her son in Lansing tomorrow but not sure if I want to skip rest time again!

I've been trying to get some little projects done around the house.  This past weekend Ryan got the Christmas lights down off the house,  Meanwhile I've been working on little decorating (aka Pinterest) projects around the house.  I made some baby bibs, embellished some burp clothes, made a cute spring wreath and a wooden pallet-type art for the mantle.  I'm still not done with the art- not sure what to paint/write on it.  I'd like some kind of quote, inspirational or family/home related... but just not sure.

I finally got my "new old van".  It is nice to have an easy-to-get-into vehicle again (I have been driving the truck).  Ry keeps saying I'm never satisfied with my vehicle but that's only because he keeps asking "Do you love your van" to which I reply... "No.  I like it, and I'm glad I have a vehicle that is running and is in great shape and fits the kids, but it's a van and, well, I don't really LOVE vans."  LOL!  I'm not trying to sound ungrateful, just truthful.  I DON'T love it, but it works for us and the price is excellent and it gets me where I need to go.  What more do I need?  Love is not required for a vehicle.  HAHA!

Today the kids were all playing with the rats and I noticed Cricket had a lump on her chest.  I did a little googling and it sounds like she has a mammary tumor. :(  I knew that tumors (likely it is benign) are common in female rats if they are not spayed (our females are not... its like $80+/rat to spay them and their life expectancy is only 3ish years) but I didn't think it'd happen this soon.  They just turned 1 year old.  So... I'm going to call around to vets and see what we should do about it.  I'm torn between thinking maybe we should have just spayed them, because if we do any type of surgery it will likely cost the same amount or more (and I'm not paying that much for surgery!).  I did read online some vets are cheap for rodent tumor removals (as low as $35) but I'm sure that won't be the case.  If that is what it comes down to I think we'll just have to have her put to sleep once the tumor gets too large for her to get around.  Poor Crickey!

Cousins

Aubri and Addi stayed the night with us last weekend.  The boys are so lucky they have cousins the same age as them (and that ALL their cousins are pretty much similar ages!).  We had a picnic lunch on the lawn, played in the pool and sprinkler and the Kid Wash.  

Uhm... love how Uncle Ryan put your suit on, Addi.... straps in the front?  HAHA!  

The Blondies...

The Brownies....

Saturday evening we had the Huffs over for a cookout and bonfire.  They brought over some fireworks (errr... sparkler type fireworks).  The kids were dirtballs by the end of the night so we turned on the Kid Wash (haha!) and they ran (and rode bikes) through the kids wash until they were clean and tuckered out.

This just cracks me up.  Addisen LOVED the rats.  She had zero fear of them at all.  Maybe because she kept calling them rabbits?  I tried correcting her but she ultimately reverted back to calling them rabbits again and again.  She was so funny...she would grab them up like they were nothing and just pick them up and hold them and didn't seem to care at all if they squirmed.  Saturday morning Porter was feeding the rats and Addi snuck in and grabbed up Polly.  I heard them running through the kitchen and turned to see Addi run into the living room, poor Polly in her hand, and Porter running after Addi.  Addi was yelling "No, no take away my rabbit!" It was hilarious!

Check out Atticus the Fatticus Ratticus.... are those eyes not pleading for rescuing or what?!

Ratty Lovin'

So far we are LOVING our rats.  Growing up I had numerous hamsters and even a guinea pig.  Our rats BY FAR surpass our expectations for a small pet and they are SO much more fun, personable and entertaining than a hamster or guinea pig.  

Porter especially is loving them.  He calls himself "Grandpa" to them HAHA!  I've caught him numerous times saying "Come on little guy, come to grandpa."  HAHAHA!  It cracks me up.   He calls Atticus "Fatticus" because he's the largest (males are larger than females) and Polly (who he named) "Pollister".  He says Polly is his favorite (because he named her).  

Whenever we go near their cage and they are awake, the rats are scrambling to come near us and climbing all around to get our attention.  We just recently started letting them out of their cage to roam/play.  I'd read online that most rats need some "exploration" time and we decided the playroom was probably our best place to keep them contained.  Originally I thought they'd for sure jet right out of the cage and run from us.... but I've found exactly the opposite.  We put their cage on the floor and opened the doors.  They were all extremely curious to get to the door and climbed outside onto the top of their cage but they were very very cautious about exploring the ground and surrounding room.  They would scamper over to us and climb into our laps and then go back to their cage.  They seem to view their cage and us as their "safe places".  Today Atticus was getting a little more adventurous.  He roamed around more and explored near the bookshelf but for the most part he stayed near me, Porter or his cage. Polly has surprised us with a bit of a personality shift.  Originally she was the shy one and Cricket was the bouncy, active, curious one.  Cricket still is a little more active than tiny Polly but Polly has become a little braver than Cricket as far as exploring outside the cage. 

I can't say enough about rats as pets.  They are entertaining us so much!  Porter spent about an hour in the playroom with them this afternoon, just playing with them and letting them climb around their cage.  They really do have little personalities and are very interactive with you.  They want to be near you and exploring and climbing on you, totally opposite of hamsters which seem to want nothing to do with humans.  If you can get past their kinda creepy tail, they really are so adorable!

Porter and Polly:

Atticus getting brave.

Polly exploring

Porter and Polly

Atticus checking out the puppets

Atticus giving Porter a kiss

Atticus checking out Porter.  Polly is next to them.

Ratatouille

Oh boy... I know, I know.  I'm slightly crazy.  Probably insane if you were being really honest.  But yes, we got PET RATS!  Oh my gosh they are SO DARN cute and entertaining.  It all started a few weeks ago....

One of the hermit crabs died and Porter was heartbroken.  So we headed to the petstore to get another hermit crab and I realized it was silly to spend almost $10 on a hermit crab.   They don't DO anything.  Ours were literally buried in the sand 24/7.  

Then the rats caught my eye. 

Back in highschool I remember seeing a rat at the petstore... it looked kind of mangy (now after researching rats a bit I think it was a rex) but it was so friendly and playful.  I wanted to get it but my mom would never ever agree to getting a pet rat.  So, I got a guinea pig.  His name was Moose and he was so cute.  This was after a handful of hamsters I'd had (and newts and fish and cockatiels....  I loved animals!). 

I realized... HEY!  *I* am the mom now!  We can get rats if we want!  So I started browsing Craigslist and checking out cage prices and researching rats as pets.  There were a few near misses in acquiring some pet rats but none worked out.  I was undecided on males or females (males being larger, calmer and cuddlier but having, ahem, big balls... females being smaller, more playful but more active).  Ideally I thought I'd love to have a neutered male but wasn't about to spend $80 on neutering a RAT! 

Well, my patience and research paid off.  I found someone on CL that had 2 month old baby rats to rehome... 7 females.  They were cute in the pictures.  When I called her she mentioned she also had 2 neutered males the same age.  SCORE!   To top it off... she was giving us a small cage with them. 

So yesterday we went to Lansing to pick up our babies.  We got 2 females and 1 neutered male.  The cage her son gave us (she wasn't home and turns out the son gave us a hamster cage instead of the decent sized rat cage) was a bit small for the 3 rats so we went to 3 petstores to check out cage prices.  Preuss Pets had a great one for $100.  Ick.  Pet Supplies Plus had some great ferret cages on clearance but the bar spacing was too far apart for rats.  PetSmart was our jackpot.  We scored a great sized cage with 2 levels for..... wait for it.... $8.97!  Less than $10 for a $50 cage!  YAY!  

By the way, have you EVER tried to photograph rats?  Baby rats, at that... that are active and scurrying around?  Oh my.  I put them on the ironing board by a window and was able to get just a handful in focus.   Cricket (aptly named because she scurries and hops around!) decided to leap the 3 feet from the ironing board to the chair!