Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / October 2007

My poor lickle baby hurt him self just now....

i'd left branden sleeping in the corner of the sofa, he was curled up
with his tail in his paws like on the photo's of him on our site, and
went to cook something for tea, a couple of corn cobs.

we were low on battery power, so instead of microwaving them i cooked
them the old fassioned way, boil them for 10 minutes.

about 5 minutes to go, and i wasnt paying attention to the pan, it was
just bubbeling nicely, then i smelt burning hair.

And behind the pan was branden, sat on the cooker with that ratty
'what did i do' look on his face,

the silly bugger had tried to sniff a lit gas ring hadd'nt he, luckily
the burning hair turned out to be a few of his whiskers being singed,
but my heart sank when i saw him on the cooker,

luckily all he did was singe his whiskers on his right hand side, he
still has the main big uns, just the shorter ones towards the front of
his nose are now in the style of a rex rat.

He never squeaked or anything, and he is a whiner rat, he'll squeak at
any opportunity, so luckily no real harm done, maybe he's learnt
something, that's how rats figure things out isnt it, i know it's my
fault, i know he can get from the sofa to the kitchen worktop, and i
let him do so, it's just an extension of his play area when i dont
want him on the floor chasing toffee around, and us having to do the
ratty shuffle the length of the van.

Right now he's sharing a fluff sandwich with Sam now (spreadble
marshmallow, Real marts in germany stock it in the international foods
isle with a few other american things, the english items are limited
to tiny pots of marmite for 20 times the price back home, and heinze
tomatoe sauce.. prefer curry ketchup now :)

I thought i had rat proofed the van, blocked up any holes he could
disapeer into, no cables available to him, insulation on the central
heating pipes, glued the lift out drain guard on the shower tray down
so he cant lift it and disapeer down the waste pipes and so on,

will have to put a guard around the cooker if he goes near it again,
which i guess he will, as he regulary helps me clean it by eating the
spilled food... once it's cooled down that is... so my fault again for
letting him do that.

Going to give him lots of hugs tonight, and make even more fuss of
him, hope he dosent learn that if he hurts himself he gets extra
treats and attention tho :)