Update on Heckyll and Jekyll

Temporary names, btw

Here are some pictures of the little guys (we think they're both males - we hope).  They aren't drinking much of the kitten milk and we see and hear them munching on the seeds in the rat food and drinking from the water bottle.  Progress.

Btw: they have a larger cage - the small plastic one is a "petting area" and holding place so we can clean their cage and stuff.

Rats - plural

One interesting thing around here is the rats.

Usually that's not a sentence taken in a good context but these guys are cute and aren't running around all up in our groceries.

The babies are getting bigger and developing nicely.  They've started eating the rat food we got the other day in addition to the kitten milk we've been giving them every four hours.  We still haven't decided what we'll do with them once they're weened off the milk.

These are from a few days ago. They're a little bigger but not much.

Rats Alive

The rats are eating regularly and everything looks okay. We're not sure how old they are and how long they'll be on milk so we're not sure how long we'll be taking turns waking up every four hours.

Jackie had last night, I get tonight.

The things we do to be good stewards

bedroom progress

we made it through a lot of years but now I'm finding I feel confused and puzzled.  I'm not sure who I am on some levels.  So, I've been taking some interesting on line courses on goth subjects and exploring aspects of interests.  I've determined I have a lot of goth aspects but I'm not really a goth.  I am an aging metalhead/horror fanatic.

Part of my exploration is changing my room a bit.  I know you really never understood my attraction to horror movies except for you imprinting a love of Sherlock Holmes, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and the Hound of the Baskervilles when pregnant with me.  I can't explain it either except that it just is.  Alice Cooper, Buffy, Xena and horror movies.

I've painted two of my walls a deep wine red.  It took several coats but the color is DEEP. I've trimmed the window and baseboards on the two walls black.  The other two walls are staying the sage green.  On the red I'm going an 'iron lattice' stencil in a pewter silver/grey that is turning out REALLY nicely!  I have new horror movie posters that are framed and got frames for my Alice Cooper posters. Looks much nicer and not like at teenage boy's posters.

the trim around the window, around the door and around the two walls and closet is a deep black

the stencil is in Americana acrylic paint: zinc

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P56FW0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=34LR0UWU1INK3&coliid=ITFW6V2E241AE

the stencil pattern is "iron lattice"
http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/iron-lattice-wall-and-floor-stencil-576785/

the sage green of the east and south wall work really well with the claret color and the shelves up high for my action figures are a buttermilk cream color that also works well with both colors.

I'm pleased

 In progress - window frame (note the bubble wrap on the window serving as winter insulation on the glass)

 upclose view of the stencil and the wine red color

 one corner of my room - dresser, boxes, USMC wood carved sign, my prayer shawl, tree of life wall hanging and one wine red wall with zinc color iron lattice stencil and sage green wall

Still have just a little stenciling left to do on the west wall and then rehanging shelves up high.  Some trim on the closet and hanging some art work and then clean up my room!

Mice? Nope - rats - literally

Two days ago I opened the door to let the youngest cats inside and heard squeaks.  I thought there was a bird nearby raising a fuss and then spotted a small mouse on the porch, curled up and barely moving.  It squeaked and then I heard another squeak.

TWO mice, both alive.  I yelled for Jackie and she got them into her pocket to warm up quickly and we examined them. No sign of trauma but I didn't think we'd have them long.  Most animals caught by the cats die within 24 hours, either too young to make without their mama, trauma or shock.

Went on the internet and found out what to feed the little critters and how to care for them.  Okay - plastic shoebox - puncture holes in the top, shred paper towels and put it on a heating pad - check.

Powdered baby formula or kitten formula with more water than called for in an eye dropper or syringe.  Okay, Jackie went to Walmart and we started feeding them every two hours and using a wet Q-tip to stimulate digestion and.... other bodily functions.

She took the first night and I had them last night.  They've taken to taking the milk from the eye dropper and are cute little beggars.  We've been trying to figure out what kind of mice they are and took pictures and sent them to a friend that has worked with a vet and has done some wild animal rescue from rabbits to birds.

My friend said the two look too big to be mice, which we were wondering about. They barely have their eyes open and they're the size of full grown mice.  She looked up photos and believes we have wood rats.  The kind that tend to steer clear of houses except for woodpiles or grabbing shiny objects (also known as pack rats).  Interesting.

Jackie and I both like rats and mice but that might be a handful. Mice can be house in a small cage or aquarium with a mesh top. Rats need more room and would it be fair to the rats and our cats to have each other in the same house?

Then I saw where it was illegal to have wild rats in one state.  Really?  Okay - research time.

Wow - you have to have a permit to have "non-domestic" rodents of any kind (and monkeys, tigers, kangaroos, armadillos, crocodiles, wolves, eagles, etc).  Okay, after they're weaned we'll let the guys loose, not that anyone would report us out here but they are wild animals meant to stay that way.

And they won't be teasing the cats constantly.