Fezziwig begs for attention and then pushes you away when you stick your finger in the cage. Jingle likes to ask to come out and then hover in the doorway for ages before he actually leaves. Pocket just wants all of the food.
And then there's Dodger.
Due to his rather rough start in life, he's become a very special ratty. I have to admit, when we got the boys I couldn't help but think he looked rather plain by comparison to our handsome brown, black and white rats. Dodger's a black hooded rat, and is kind of a cross between my first two ratties; Millie, a chunky black and white hooded, and Rosie, an agouti hooded who was clearly the runt of the litter.
Because of his ear infections Dodger spent rather more time in the Baby Cage than his brothers. The first time we kept them all together in there but by the time he got his second infection they were too big to all stay in there, so we separated him out and he spent a couple of days sleeping in our room, getting taken to my In-Laws' house for trips to the vet and generally being mollycoddled.
And now I think he's come to expect it.
Whenever we open the top of the cage to put in food (which is delivered as they expect morning and evening, they can tell the time better than we can), the boys crowd around the shelf to get first choice of whatever the day's treats are.
All except Dodger.
Despite looking like a little dink compared to his brothers, Dodger is actually longer than any of them! He stands on the top shelf, stretches his little paws out and grabs hold of the top of the cage. He's also got fantastic upper body strength which he uses to great effect to pull himself out.
Generally he's happy to just trundle around the top of the cage, but what he really wants when he does this is a cuddle. So you lift him into your arms, or hold him in your hands, and let him sniff your face or plant little ratty kisses on your nose and lips. Sometimes he'll get adventurous and climb onto your shoulder or try to use you as a platform to more interesting things.
It's when you put him back that things get tricky. As soon as his feet touch the floor, he's springing back up again! Mr Click and I are becoming quiet adept at the manoeuvring which is required to get him back in the cage and the top or door closed without trapping any part of his little ratty personage in it.
But he's such a cutie that we don't really mind. After all, if we'd not acted when we did a few months ago, he might not be with us today. That deserves a little bit of spoiling, I think.
And you just can't say no to his demands for cuddles.
Especially as when he sleeps he looks like this:
Aww, he looks sweet.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Aww he's a little sweetie. I had a rat, Fang that always wanted to be out with me. He's jump right out of the cage into my lap when I opened the door. He was also the biter but he never bit me. He bit Ken several times though until they became friends because Ken shared his food with him. lol
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