A lot on my plate

I have a lot on my plate right now… 😉

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Mishka’s mad method

When we treated our boys to leftover prawns, I got a few shots of Mishka’s mad method of eating the seafood without holding it in his hands:

Step 1: Grab a prawn

Step 2: Taste the yummyness without touching it

Step 3: Chase the prawn across the cage (because you refuse to dirty your paws)

Step 4: Somehow, use this method to slowly, carefully clean the shells

Step 5: Sneak up to the bowl…

Step 6: … and bounce off with another piece (while managing to look like an utterly adorable clown!)

Step 7: Start the hands-free licking process as before

Hehehe. Ah man this rat melts my heart! 🙂

A Christmas tail

A furry merry Christmas to you!

Greetings, sunshine lovers!

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas 🙂

At the tail end of the Christmas celebrations, I wanted to share with you the poem I wrote for my friends at the South African rat club this year.

A Christmas tail

 

Imagine with me

if you will

that on that starry night

 

as shepherds praised

and wise men bowed

to meet the Child of light

 

between the cattle

through the hay

ran tiny gel-pink feet

 

and whiskers twitched

and black eyes glowed

to see the Child so sweet

 

With yellow teeth

and scaly tail

and fur as soft as fleece

 

a humble rodent

scurried in

to greet the Child of peace

 

Of course a rat

of all things made

could find its way in there

 

It scampered close

and sat quite still

to watch the Child so fair

 

Then bursting into

happy bruxing

to witness Christmas morn

 

a simple ratty

sang its joy-song

to the King there born.

(Please note: As with all the other content on this site, this poem is copyrighted to me. You may not use it without permission. Please contact me for any re-use requests. Thank you. – Zest)

Goal 53: Get more rat merch

You know, of course, that my beady little eyes are always hunting for any cute rat-themed merchandise 🙂 Well, recently I’ve added two great finds to my ratty collection, which have helped me reach my Goal #53 (that’s in addition to my beautiful rat teapot and Cheddar soft toy). I don’t foresee an end to this collection, but I think I can happily cross off the goal from my list now.

First, I discovered that despite what I think of Halloween, the supposedly scary day can be useful for bring ratties onto the shelves! I unearthed this black plastic rat in the shops as a leftover from Halloween:

It’s really quite pathetic how they tried to make him all beastly, as though you’d ever find a real black rat with red eyes!

I took pity on the poor critter and brought him home. After a good coat of gesso to prime him nicely…

… I painted him to look like Mishka!

What a difference! It just goes to show: put a fancy coat and a cute face on a rat, and suddenly it’s no longer a horrible scary monster 😉

I still have a bit of work to do to finish off the details on his face and tail, but I have already painted a white spot on the back of his head, just like Mishka’s:

(I call that Mishka’s ‘kissy spot’ because when he hangs his head over a ledge or comes within my reach, that’s the spot I kiss to bits!)

I named this plastic rat Loki, because he was meant to be the dark bad guy, but throw in a bit of shape shifting he’s actually just funny! lol

The other item I snatched up was this wonderful metal coat hook:

Isn’t that perfect?! I found it at Kamers vol geskenke in Pretoria, but you could swear it was made for me.

The whole contraption fits over a standard door, with the ratties’ tails forming the hooks:

Call me simple, but this stuff just makes me really, really happy! 😀

Why so quiet, Zest?

Cherry on top

I just had to share this series of shots from a cute moment during Flea’s birthday party. She went for the cherry on top of the biscuit, but didn’t use her hands to grab the biscuit… 🙂