1) those outshine bars are delicious!
2) penguins!
3) D’AWW poor stereotyped fishie
Survey — if anyone wants to go through the questions and pull things to find correlations on, now is the time. Ideally, two things apply —
1) you want to know the relationship between the variable (question) you pick, and the question about acceptance
2) the data is continuous and unique. That is, not a variety of categories, and not a case where people could be in more than one category.
E.g. The correlation between age and acceptance at manboobz is negligible. And, rather unsripisingly, the correlation between accepted by peers and in general is Very Frikken High.
Pet emergency funds are great. I put 60 Euro a month at the side ( 10 per Rat plus an extra 10), in case my normal funds turn out to be insufficient to cover treatment for the rats. So far this only happened once, namely last month, because additionaly my car broke down (and left me wondering why I even have that useless thing, but as long as my parents are willing to help me finance it, so I can visit my family in the middle of nowhere, I guess I’m stuck with tolerating the occasional break-downs. I sure as hell can’ t afford a new one, also I live in the city. I have masses of public transportation on my doorstep, So WHY DO I EVEN OWN A CAR?)
I keep it a secret from my family how much money I spend on my little ones. They wouldn’t understand, ratties are just rodents after all. AND WHY DO I NEED TO HAVE SO MANY? So far I managed everything on my own, which is a great feeling and I’m lucky to be able to, except for the car. Stupid car.
I’m happy I don’t have bigoted friends, especially the boyfriend is awesome. Another friend is pretty misanthropic, but doesn’t differentiate between the sexes or races or orientation, regognizes and rejects all kind of stereotypes, but isn’t willing to trust new people easily. He’s awesome too. Of course we all have our filters and aren’t perfect, but we do our best. I’m sorry for everyone who has to tolerate bigoted people close to them. My Dad turned around almost 180 degrees and is a much nicer, opener person now, but the rest of his side of the family is pretty horrible. Especially my uncle, who is a police officer and particularly hates russians for their communistic atheism and lack of christian values. Also, atheists are the evil generally, except me ofcourse, because deep down I’m christian too! No matter what I say!
I’m glad I don’t have to see them often. :/
I wish all pet owners the best of luck. Also nice, non-bigoted friends for everyone who wants or nerds them! I hope I didn’t mess the english too much.
I kind of want a pet bunny. I’ve heard good and bad about them though.
My friend got two, but she didn’t keep them separated so she ended up with 10….
Viscaria
11 years ago
My cousins got the meanest, nastiest bunny I had ever seen about a decade ago. I thought he would turn me off of bunnies as pets forever. It was almost a year before they found out that the only reason he was so vicious was he was completely deaf and partially blind, so he didn’t know when he was being approached. Poor bunny. Once they started approaching him slowly from the front he was much nicer.
I don’t know if that’s a helpful story, but, uh… I guess if you get a bunny and it’s not all you were hoping for take it to the vet and see if it has issues that might explain it?
daintydougal
11 years ago
Boop.
ANIMALS: most animals prefer to be at least in pairs, but in my experience if you’re at home a lot they’ll be fine. Also my partners parents had a cat and bought another one to keep him company, but the ‘original’ got really stressed out and got cat acne. anyway, a mere 10 years later the imposter died and the ‘original’ is now much happier and leaping about even though he’s now an old man!
Reading manboobz has made me realise how insanely lucky I am to have the parents I do. If I’m healthy and happy that’s all they care about (really not trying to rub it in). This business of ‘if we’re supporting you, we own you’ is just repulsive.
Another thing I realise is how lucky I am to have my independence. Even when my back was really bad my partner was basically caring for me…I don’t know. I’m just insanely lucky in so many ways and it sucks so much that such lovely people as yourselves have to go through so much horrible nonsense. Many many hugs and love if wanted.
Also, please don’t get just one bunny. They’re social animals too, and need at least one companion that “speaks the same language” (so not a guinea pig, though keeping a pair or more of guineapigs and a pair or more of bunnys together, is ok as far as I know). Loneliness can make an animal vicious too and a Human is just not the same as another bunny. Same sex couples are possible! Neutering too! Also, they need lots of space!
Seriously though, cages and equipment at pet stores are mostly completely useless. This goes especially for rats (or rather, I’m best informed on the needs of rats, not so much on other small animals, so that’s where this impression comes from, also I only know german and dutch pet stores firsthand), but I doubt it’s any better for other species. And the information they give you too…
daintydougal
11 years ago
It’s basically impossible to get a proper sized rat cage – the bigger the cage gets the wider apart the bars become. Not so much a problem if they’re out all the time anyway, but then you have to go around cleaning up their little nests!
I have a modular system, that was specially designed for rats and for animal rescues. It’s full aluminium and has complete front doors on each module, so cleaning is not much of an issue. There can not only be added infinite compartments above, but also sideways. But it’s not exactly cheap. And one could argue that it has not enough climbing opportunities.
I want to extend the cage sideways, but have to wait. At the moment I have three modules, stapled, but I want a 2×2 Setup. The cage now is too high for me, so cleaning is always kind of dangerous, and I’d love for them to have more horizontal walking space, but the monies and also the current appartment is too small. :/
My old ladies are probably not going to experience that anymore. I will have to finish nursing school first and then move, bevor it’s even a possibility.
Building a cage yourself by modifying a cupboard or wardrobe works fine for a lot of people though. 🙂
daintydougal
11 years ago
Many cages also have platforms that are aren’t solid but are open like the bars and I heard that was bad for their little feets. Gawd I miss my ratties.
Or way too small plattforms. And with bar platforms you risk that your ratties get bumblefeet, sort of like decubiti on humans, or break their feet because they get caught between the bars, especially when they have their little hierarchy fights.
And don’t get me started on running wheels. There’s so much going wrong out there, alltough the information isn’t even hard to find. How can you let your rat run in a wheel that isn’t even big enough for a dwarf hamster? :/
How can I add a youtube video btw?
misery
11 years ago
My apartment comes with two wooden platforms, partly hidden behind a wall, so I just modified that to be a rat cage. I do have a cage, but I felt so bad when I noticed just how little space they have. For some reason I did not expect rats to be large, I would sometimes visit the pet store just to look at the animals, but I didn’t realize that they only show young rats there. When I visited the rat breeder I was almost scared of their size, I figured I had seen dogs smaller than that.
I don’t think all animals go well with each other. I think that in the case of rats, you can’t keep them with other animals too well because they are natural bullies and will make your guinea pig or rabbit feel miserable. And if the animals are too small, like mice, their hunting instinct flares up and there is a certain risk factor. Guinea pigs and rabbits are often placed together, maybe out of some notion of efficiency, but I imagine they are still best served with same-sex, same species animals to spend time with.
I hope this works. I know Pepper is extremely fat, but all my efforts to make her lose weight without just starving her have been in fain, and I’m not gonna try it anymore. The poor thing has a tumor on her belly by now and nothing can be done about it, so her time is limited and the best thing in life to her is food, so she can have everything she wants for the rest of her day. She’s fine for the moment.
Part of the cage can be seen in the video. Also lots of boxes, because boxes are not only awesome for cats, but for rats too. And I think it’s too adorable how she grabs the food, hops in the cage and then has to make sure the coast is clear before she comes out again.
Rats are adorable, but I can’t deal with owning rodents. Or fish. Too much of an emotional roller coaster for me.
Viscaria
11 years ago
I don’t think I could keep short-lived creatures either. NGL I have nightmares about when the kitties will pass away — and I’ve only known them for a couple years. I don’t know how bf will do since he’s had them for about 13 years. They just enrich our lives so much with their affection and cuddles and their wacky personalities.
Dvärghundspossen
11 years ago
I’ve had two female guinea pigs together, for a while these two plus a bunny, and then for several years we had two bunnies at a time, always a female and a neutered male. I don’t think it’s ideal either to keep guinea pigs and bunnies together, they communicate much better with their own kind. Guinea pigs “talk” a lot, while rabbits spend a lot of time licking each other.
They’re not necessarily that short-lived… our guinea pigs both lived till they were eight. Of our bunnies, two of them unfortunately died fairly young due to illnesses, one became medium-aged, and one became ten years old, which is old for a bunny. Sure, still a short life-span compared to a cat or a healthy toy dog, but not that short.
The last bunny we got from an old lady I cared for when I worked as a practical nurse. She had rapidly deteriorating Alzeimers and had to go to a nursing home, and couldn’t bring her little bunny, so I took her (the bunny that is, not the lady). The bunny was incredibly short-tempered and got pissed off at everything and everyone. At that time, we had a lone male bunny since his female companion had passed away, so we thought that this would be great, now they’d both get some company. But the old lady’s bunny and our male bunny just fought all the time. They had to be kept in separate cages when we weren’t at home, and when we were at home and could keep an eye on them we had to watch them all the time to make sure they didn’t get into fights.
Bunnies are supposed to take care of each others fur on top of the head where they can’t clean themselves, but since these two wouldn’t lick each other, our oldest dog took it upon himself to fix their furs. Unfortunately he wasn’t very good at it; he managed to make dreadlocks on them both, even on the one with absolutely short hair on his head he somehow managed to make short little locks. Eventually though, our dog just tired of cleaning rabbit heads every day (or something). Whenever the rabbits would show even the slightest indication of getting into an argument, he would bark his head off at them. Pretty soon they didn’t dare fight with each other any longer, since any such attempt resulted in the dog running at them shouting his head off. And then they actually became friends and started cleaning each others heads like a proper bunny couple. They remained friends after that. 🙂
Andrea Montgomery
11 years ago
I just wanted to pop in and say that I left a comment referencing you over at John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever. Recently I have been wading deep in the mire of the kerfuffle regarding sexual harassment and reporting and policies pertaining thereunto at F&SF conventions, and I came across this gem: “…none of them would be able to successfully navigate the maze of scalzied manboobs…” <– on why old prejudiced nastyassed– I mean, THE LIONS IN THE FIELD of classic SF couldn't be published today even if they pretended to believe that black people and women are humans too– I mean, if they got down on their knees and begged. From http://voxday.blogspot.com/2013/06/women-ruin-everything-sfwa-edition.html.
I'd advise against reading that link, personally, but since I did, I discovered that perfect remark. I just wanted to go on record saying that, as a longtime reader of both John Scalzi and Manboobz (manboobz.com, feminist ally extraordinaire) I proudly join the ranks of scalzied manboobs, and hope that together my comrades and I can help to make cons and the rest of the world a place safe from harassment.
I just wanted to say that even though I'll probably never comment again (it isn't really my thing most of the time) that I read all of your posts in RSS and the stuff that you write contributes significantly to my personal happiness. So thank you for that.
Viscaria
11 years ago
By short-lived I actually meant fish or rats :). Rabbits are pretty decent. They seem to be even worse than cats for my allergies though, so probably not the pet for me!
I don’t know about anybody else but I am really enjoying reading about everybody’s pets. 🙂
Hey guys. I closed up homeathon, and if SittieKitty shows, I posted their bonus sketch!
Now I’ve opened up writing and art commissions, because I lost my wedding ring last year, and my fingers have thickened so much I can’t wear my engagement band. (It shreds off my skin. Not good.) I hate having no band on my finger, but I can’t justify the cost of even a plain silver band with our budget. Thus, commissions!
I lost one rat so far and i cried for about a week, failed a test because of it, and felt just so, so guilty. I only had that rat for two months and she wasn’t even nice to humans and bit me when she had just arrived. But she became nicer by the day (she just didn’t like strangers)… and sicker. She was the last survivor among her sisters and I took her in to introduce her to the group, so she wouldn’t have to die alone. Only her death came way too fast, she wasn’t part of the group yet and mostly scared of my other rats and wanted nothing to do with them at all, but was at the same time clearly lonely. And then meningitis ended the whole process by making her suffer for over a week in the most horrible way. She couldn’t hold her food, she couldn’t even stay on her feet without falling sideways, and the damned antibiotics didn’t change a thing, except the vet hurt her with the pricks and all for nothing. I hated it. It was so unfair. Because I couldn’t fullfill my promise to end her loneliness.
I think I’ll be able to deal with the deaths of my ‘old ladies’ better, because they won’t be alone at the end, I have a way better and more empathic vet now, and… well, they had a happy rat life. I will be sad, but I won’t feel guilty anymore, like I failed them. But we’ll see. Maybe sadness alone will turn out to be too hard on me too and I won’t be able to deal with it forever, though I really want to continue to give ratties a home.
I’d love to have cats at some point in my life too, I had one as a child and she was _the best cat ever_ (to me at least), and I still feel sad when I think about her, even though she died 7 years ago. She was a friend, one that moved with me multiple times across the country and forgave me all the stupid ideas I had as a kid and still loved me. When I was a very unhappy, depressed teenager, who did not want to live anymore, it was the idea that I would leave her alone that kept me from trying anything, because even though it was not true, I felt she was the only one who cared about me and my parents wouldn’t miss me anyway (I didn’t have friends at the time, I couldn’t adapt to the last move, my dad was far away and I fighted a lot with my mom). I’m glad those times are over, but I still really miss my kitty.
We Hunted The Mammoth
Mmmm, peach ice cream! Thank you!
I am done with the religion section!!!
By the power of
ice creamFreeze Peach!Freeze peach in conveniently portable form.
http://www.outshinesnacks.com/products/seasonal/peach.aspx
Female whore penguins:
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ee/41/4e/ee414e0f7a25c77a93b3bb3a1496c168.jpg
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a8/6d/c1/a86dc1f828b4f8258aaa31afeeca39cf.jpg
http://media-cache-ak3.pinimg.com/736x/76/f9/eb/76f9eb91296c77f84b9f16426b86f13d.jpg
Fun Fish Comic
http://kickingcones.tumblr.com/tagged/comic
Giving data the snake eyes
http://24.media.tumblr.com/cd7635d4449872a48093594b66f4d926/tumblr_mp8wrnaytc1qhowqqo1_1280.jpg
http://media-cache-ak2.pinimg.com/736x/e8/e5/0c/e8e50c92079a2d0d5255acdf324fda83.jpg
{{{hugs}}}:
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b5/87/0d/b5870d83f39de30529a46af46481d958.jpg
1) those outshine bars are delicious!
2) penguins!
3) D’AWW poor stereotyped fishie
Survey — if anyone wants to go through the questions and pull things to find correlations on, now is the time. Ideally, two things apply —
1) you want to know the relationship between the variable (question) you pick, and the question about acceptance
2) the data is continuous and unique. That is, not a variety of categories, and not a case where people could be in more than one category.
E.g. The correlation between age and acceptance at manboobz is negligible. And, rather unsripisingly, the correlation between accepted by peers and in general is Very Frikken High.
Pet emergency funds are great. I put 60 Euro a month at the side ( 10 per Rat plus an extra 10), in case my normal funds turn out to be insufficient to cover treatment for the rats. So far this only happened once, namely last month, because additionaly my car broke down (and left me wondering why I even have that useless thing, but as long as my parents are willing to help me finance it, so I can visit my family in the middle of nowhere, I guess I’m stuck with tolerating the occasional break-downs. I sure as hell can’ t afford a new one, also I live in the city. I have masses of public transportation on my doorstep, So WHY DO I EVEN OWN A CAR?)
I keep it a secret from my family how much money I spend on my little ones. They wouldn’t understand, ratties are just rodents after all. AND WHY DO I NEED TO HAVE SO MANY? So far I managed everything on my own, which is a great feeling and I’m lucky to be able to, except for the car. Stupid car.
I’m happy I don’t have bigoted friends, especially the boyfriend is awesome. Another friend is pretty misanthropic, but doesn’t differentiate between the sexes or races or orientation, regognizes and rejects all kind of stereotypes, but isn’t willing to trust new people easily. He’s awesome too. Of course we all have our filters and aren’t perfect, but we do our best. I’m sorry for everyone who has to tolerate bigoted people close to them. My Dad turned around almost 180 degrees and is a much nicer, opener person now, but the rest of his side of the family is pretty horrible. Especially my uncle, who is a police officer and particularly hates russians for their communistic atheism and lack of christian values. Also, atheists are the evil generally, except me ofcourse, because deep down I’m christian too! No matter what I say!
I’m glad I don’t have to see them often. :/
I wish all pet owners the best of luck. Also nice, non-bigoted friends for everyone who wants or nerds them! I hope I didn’t mess the english too much.
That should have been “need” at the end of course, but nerding people is fine too in my opinion.
I kind of want a pet bunny. I’ve heard good and bad about them though.
My friend got two, but she didn’t keep them separated so she ended up with 10….
My cousins got the meanest, nastiest bunny I had ever seen about a decade ago. I thought he would turn me off of bunnies as pets forever. It was almost a year before they found out that the only reason he was so vicious was he was completely deaf and partially blind, so he didn’t know when he was being approached. Poor bunny. Once they started approaching him slowly from the front he was much nicer.
I don’t know if that’s a helpful story, but, uh… I guess if you get a bunny and it’s not all you were hoping for take it to the vet and see if it has issues that might explain it?
Boop.
ANIMALS: most animals prefer to be at least in pairs, but in my experience if you’re at home a lot they’ll be fine. Also my partners parents had a cat and bought another one to keep him company, but the ‘original’ got really stressed out and got cat acne. anyway, a mere 10 years later the imposter died and the ‘original’ is now much happier and leaping about even though he’s now an old man!
Reading manboobz has made me realise how insanely lucky I am to have the parents I do. If I’m healthy and happy that’s all they care about (really not trying to rub it in). This business of ‘if we’re supporting you, we own you’ is just repulsive.
Another thing I realise is how lucky I am to have my independence. Even when my back was really bad my partner was basically caring for me…I don’t know. I’m just insanely lucky in so many ways and it sucks so much that such lovely people as yourselves have to go through so much horrible nonsense. Many many hugs and love if wanted.
Also, please don’t get just one bunny. They’re social animals too, and need at least one companion that “speaks the same language” (so not a guinea pig, though keeping a pair or more of guineapigs and a pair or more of bunnys together, is ok as far as I know). Loneliness can make an animal vicious too and a Human is just not the same as another bunny. Same sex couples are possible! Neutering too! Also, they need lots of space!
Seriously though, cages and equipment at pet stores are mostly completely useless. This goes especially for rats (or rather, I’m best informed on the needs of rats, not so much on other small animals, so that’s where this impression comes from, also I only know german and dutch pet stores firsthand), but I doubt it’s any better for other species. And the information they give you too…
It’s basically impossible to get a proper sized rat cage – the bigger the cage gets the wider apart the bars become. Not so much a problem if they’re out all the time anyway, but then you have to go around cleaning up their little nests!
I have a modular system, that was specially designed for rats and for animal rescues. It’s full aluminium and has complete front doors on each module, so cleaning is not much of an issue. There can not only be added infinite compartments above, but also sideways. But it’s not exactly cheap. And one could argue that it has not enough climbing opportunities.
I want to extend the cage sideways, but have to wait. At the moment I have three modules, stapled, but I want a 2×2 Setup. The cage now is too high for me, so cleaning is always kind of dangerous, and I’d love for them to have more horizontal walking space, but the monies and also the current appartment is too small. :/
My old ladies are probably not going to experience that anymore. I will have to finish nursing school first and then move, bevor it’s even a possibility.
Building a cage yourself by modifying a cupboard or wardrobe works fine for a lot of people though. 🙂
Many cages also have platforms that are aren’t solid but are open like the bars and I heard that was bad for their little feets. Gawd I miss my ratties.
Or way too small plattforms. And with bar platforms you risk that your ratties get bumblefeet, sort of like decubiti on humans, or break their feet because they get caught between the bars, especially when they have their little hierarchy fights.
And don’t get me started on running wheels. There’s so much going wrong out there, alltough the information isn’t even hard to find. How can you let your rat run in a wheel that isn’t even big enough for a dwarf hamster? :/
How can I add a youtube video btw?
My apartment comes with two wooden platforms, partly hidden behind a wall, so I just modified that to be a rat cage. I do have a cage, but I felt so bad when I noticed just how little space they have. For some reason I did not expect rats to be large, I would sometimes visit the pet store just to look at the animals, but I didn’t realize that they only show young rats there. When I visited the rat breeder I was almost scared of their size, I figured I had seen dogs smaller than that.
I don’t think all animals go well with each other. I think that in the case of rats, you can’t keep them with other animals too well because they are natural bullies and will make your guinea pig or rabbit feel miserable. And if the animals are too small, like mice, their hunting instinct flares up and there is a certain risk factor. Guinea pigs and rabbits are often placed together, maybe out of some notion of efficiency, but I imagine they are still best served with same-sex, same species animals to spend time with.
I hope this works. I know Pepper is extremely fat, but all my efforts to make her lose weight without just starving her have been in fain, and I’m not gonna try it anymore. The poor thing has a tumor on her belly by now and nothing can be done about it, so her time is limited and the best thing in life to her is food, so she can have everything she wants for the rest of her day. She’s fine for the moment.
Part of the cage can be seen in the video. Also lots of boxes, because boxes are not only awesome for cats, but for rats too. And I think it’s too adorable how she grabs the food, hops in the cage and then has to make sure the coast is clear before she comes out again.
D’aaawwww… Pepper’s adorable, even as a fatrat.
Rats are adorable, but I can’t deal with owning rodents. Or fish. Too much of an emotional roller coaster for me.
I don’t think I could keep short-lived creatures either. NGL I have nightmares about when the kitties will pass away — and I’ve only known them for a couple years. I don’t know how bf will do since he’s had them for about 13 years. They just enrich our lives so much with their affection and cuddles and their wacky personalities.
I’ve had two female guinea pigs together, for a while these two plus a bunny, and then for several years we had two bunnies at a time, always a female and a neutered male. I don’t think it’s ideal either to keep guinea pigs and bunnies together, they communicate much better with their own kind. Guinea pigs “talk” a lot, while rabbits spend a lot of time licking each other.
They’re not necessarily that short-lived… our guinea pigs both lived till they were eight. Of our bunnies, two of them unfortunately died fairly young due to illnesses, one became medium-aged, and one became ten years old, which is old for a bunny. Sure, still a short life-span compared to a cat or a healthy toy dog, but not that short.
The last bunny we got from an old lady I cared for when I worked as a practical nurse. She had rapidly deteriorating Alzeimers and had to go to a nursing home, and couldn’t bring her little bunny, so I took her (the bunny that is, not the lady). The bunny was incredibly short-tempered and got pissed off at everything and everyone. At that time, we had a lone male bunny since his female companion had passed away, so we thought that this would be great, now they’d both get some company. But the old lady’s bunny and our male bunny just fought all the time. They had to be kept in separate cages when we weren’t at home, and when we were at home and could keep an eye on them we had to watch them all the time to make sure they didn’t get into fights.
Bunnies are supposed to take care of each others fur on top of the head where they can’t clean themselves, but since these two wouldn’t lick each other, our oldest dog took it upon himself to fix their furs. Unfortunately he wasn’t very good at it; he managed to make dreadlocks on them both, even on the one with absolutely short hair on his head he somehow managed to make short little locks. Eventually though, our dog just tired of cleaning rabbit heads every day (or something). Whenever the rabbits would show even the slightest indication of getting into an argument, he would bark his head off at them. Pretty soon they didn’t dare fight with each other any longer, since any such attempt resulted in the dog running at them shouting his head off. And then they actually became friends and started cleaning each others heads like a proper bunny couple. They remained friends after that. 🙂
I just wanted to pop in and say that I left a comment referencing you over at John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever. Recently I have been wading deep in the mire of the kerfuffle regarding sexual harassment and reporting and policies pertaining thereunto at F&SF conventions, and I came across this gem: “…none of them would be able to successfully navigate the maze of scalzied manboobs…” <– on why old prejudiced nastyassed– I mean, THE LIONS IN THE FIELD of classic SF couldn't be published today even if they pretended to believe that black people and women are humans too– I mean, if they got down on their knees and begged. From http://voxday.blogspot.com/2013/06/women-ruin-everything-sfwa-edition.html.
I'd advise against reading that link, personally, but since I did, I discovered that perfect remark. I just wanted to go on record saying that, as a longtime reader of both John Scalzi and Manboobz (manboobz.com, feminist ally extraordinaire) I proudly join the ranks of scalzied manboobs, and hope that together my comrades and I can help to make cons and the rest of the world a place safe from harassment.
I just wanted to say that even though I'll probably never comment again (it isn't really my thing most of the time) that I read all of your posts in RSS and the stuff that you write contributes significantly to my personal happiness. So thank you for that.
By short-lived I actually meant fish or rats :). Rabbits are pretty decent. They seem to be even worse than cats for my allergies though, so probably not the pet for me!
I don’t know about anybody else but I am really enjoying reading about everybody’s pets. 🙂
Hey guys. I closed up homeathon, and if SittieKitty shows, I posted their bonus sketch!
Now I’ve opened up writing and art commissions, because I lost my wedding ring last year, and my fingers have thickened so much I can’t wear my engagement band. (It shreds off my skin. Not good.) I hate having no band on my finger, but I can’t justify the cost of even a plain silver band with our budget. Thus, commissions!
I lost one rat so far and i cried for about a week, failed a test because of it, and felt just so, so guilty. I only had that rat for two months and she wasn’t even nice to humans and bit me when she had just arrived. But she became nicer by the day (she just didn’t like strangers)… and sicker. She was the last survivor among her sisters and I took her in to introduce her to the group, so she wouldn’t have to die alone. Only her death came way too fast, she wasn’t part of the group yet and mostly scared of my other rats and wanted nothing to do with them at all, but was at the same time clearly lonely. And then meningitis ended the whole process by making her suffer for over a week in the most horrible way. She couldn’t hold her food, she couldn’t even stay on her feet without falling sideways, and the damned antibiotics didn’t change a thing, except the vet hurt her with the pricks and all for nothing. I hated it. It was so unfair. Because I couldn’t fullfill my promise to end her loneliness.
I think I’ll be able to deal with the deaths of my ‘old ladies’ better, because they won’t be alone at the end, I have a way better and more empathic vet now, and… well, they had a happy rat life. I will be sad, but I won’t feel guilty anymore, like I failed them. But we’ll see. Maybe sadness alone will turn out to be too hard on me too and I won’t be able to deal with it forever, though I really want to continue to give ratties a home.
I’d love to have cats at some point in my life too, I had one as a child and she was _the best cat ever_ (to me at least), and I still feel sad when I think about her, even though she died 7 years ago. She was a friend, one that moved with me multiple times across the country and forgave me all the stupid ideas I had as a kid and still loved me. When I was a very unhappy, depressed teenager, who did not want to live anymore, it was the idea that I would leave her alone that kept me from trying anything, because even though it was not true, I felt she was the only one who cared about me and my parents wouldn’t miss me anyway (I didn’t have friends at the time, I couldn’t adapt to the last move, my dad was far away and I fighted a lot with my mom). I’m glad those times are over, but I still really miss my kitty.