It's been awhile since I posted any updates. It isn't for lack of pictures, just lack of time...I'm too busy playing with rats. Since the last update in February, the boys have been neutered (to stop them from trying to kill each other, since their "I'm alpha!" "No, I'm alpha!" business sounded potentially dangerous, to us at least) and the girls have been spayed (to lessen their chances of tumors.) One happy consequence of that is that they can all play together now, and they seem to enjoy that quite a bit.

The babies (and I know I should not call them that) have been joined by two old men, retired lab rats from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. They are about two and a half, and while they are full of personality and quite wonderful additions, they are not nearly as playful or easy to handle as the...babies. (See why I don't stop that?) When I introduced them originally (Lab rats emeriti) Bob was outgoing and Curly was shy and biting; since then Bob has had a respiratory infection which he licked and now he's Mr. Tough Rat, and Curly, who has a small tumor developing on his shoulder, is a Mama's boy. As soon as I open the door he's crawling up my arm.

Here are the pictures. The are pretty much in alphabetical order by file name, which means the chronology is all messed up and they are mostly grouped by rat. There are quite a few, so this pages loads pretty slowly...next time maybe I won't be so lazy and I'll code multiple pages.

Olie, Metro, Kono, Calle.

It is much harder to get the girls to hold still for a group shot.

Is this cage big enough for five rats?

Our attempt to get a family picture of all seven babies at once...

This is Bob, one of the lab rats.

He's not dead, he's resting.

This is not so much a picture of Cinnamon Schwartz eating as a picture of their food dish. They shred any paper and cloth they can get their paws on and use it to hide the food. But from whom? is what I wonder...

This is Curly, the other lab rat.

A rare shot of Curly and Bob together...

...because usually Bob is baring his teeth and scaring Curly away. They don't seem to fight to the point of blood, but I do hope Curly is ok being the omega rat and hasn't been terrorized.

Outside of being intimidated by Bob, Curly is a curious and active guy; he and Pinky seem to be adventursome soulmates.

Here he explores the trash for hidden treasure.

And Curly is the only one who will use the wheel.

Don't you hate it when people take unflattering pictures of you while you are eating?

When she's sleeping she looks so...uncomfortable.

Different day, different Yogie carton, same objective.

The babies out together.

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