Thursday 5 June 2008

Becoming more Adventurous




Misty the rat comes out every day and is gaining in confidence. Here you can see her exploring over J. We could never get close enough to take a photo, but she would raise herself onto her rear legs, nose and whiskers twitching, as she was sniffing the air. Doesn't look as if it will be long before she leaves the refuge of the settee.

She is a most affectionate rat. She loves wrapping herself round my neck and this evening whilst she was sleeping, she must have forgotten where she was. All of a sudden, she had fallen off. Not sure who was more surprised, me or her.

George, the chinchilla, is coming out for daily sorties and he seems to love going upstairs. You can imagine how comical it looks as he bounces back down the stairs.

Chinchillas, like all rodents, need to chew to keep their teeth down. In his cage he has two blocks he can gnaw on and we have noticed he likes his shelves too. The disadvantage to him running loose is that he finds lovely bits of wood to chew on in my front room - usually my trunk that holds all my fabric! We just have to keep our eyes and ears open to the sound of chinchilla gnawing, and help him to move on.

We are always amazed at how high he can jump for a little fellow, he often jumps up onto the settee. Then it is over the top and off the back for another run round the room.

Chincillas also manage to squeeze through small spaces too. Whilst we were eating dinner, he was able to squeeze through the door, which was open just a couple of inches. He certainly enjoys exploring the house.

As soon as he is back in his cage, it is time for a sand bath. It is almost as if he has to wash us from his fur!

It is amazing how quickly Pickles has got used to George. She seems to be able to keep har cat instincts under control most of the time, and ignore him. A big difference from when he first came out, she was straight off the table to investigate. She was slightly taken aback when he jumped. She is used to chasing things running along the floor. Saying that, she has once managed to catch a bat. We still haven't worked out how,

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