The Rascals

Kalli & Poppy enjoy some corn.
 

Here are my three rats, the rascals, and their table. They live on a high "bar" table, propped up even slightly higher with cinder blocks. Since they can't get off the table, they're never locked up and are free to roam around on or in their cage, along with their various boxes, blankets and of course stashing places. Their habitat has a long cage that I bought back in '98, an actual finch cage, although there couldn't be a more perfect cage for rats. It's long, with three doors on the front (one always remains open). There's lots of room for hammocks, boxes, tubes and toys.  They have a few boxes out and on their cage (used more for stashing than hiding in although they do a little sleeping in them occasionally). There's also a wooden wine box on the top right corner, the perfect chew toy as well as holder for a plastic box, another prime stashing area. Behind the cage, between the cage and the wall are two, thin plastic garbage cans on their sides, which act not only as a place to lie in or stash treats, but as a barrier for trying to climb off or lean too far over the edge of the table. On the front of the table are cardboard barriers. The barriers were originally put there to stop a previous rat from swinging over to the table legs and climbing down (only 2 have ever figured out how to get off). The three current rascals cannot get off but I keep the barriers on the table anyway because it blocks them from sitting on the edge of the table and staring at me with the "please give us treats and attention" look while I'm watching TV. The table is covered with papers (for easy cleaning) although Poppy is the big paper ripper and usually leaves a nice stack of confetti when it's time to clean the table. Thin cinder bricks line the edges of the table, holding the barriers up and keeping the rats from peaking too far over the edge. There are lots of blankets and stuff on the cage which they love to burrow through and make little tunnels. The three inhabitants are Poppy and Kalli, two black berks who came from a shelter rescue, and Ingrid, the black hooded, who was part of the Marina Del Rey rescue (the rescue where someone dumped off a bunch of rats in the gutter, some people living in a van were getting some and many others we caught). Ingrid was the first batch of rats the van people caught and she bonded right away with Kalli who was rescued at the same time. The three live together now, pretty much spoiled like no animals have ever been spoiled.
 
 






Poppy is named "Popeye" but just kind of morphed into "Poppy."
Here he climbs his big self down the cage.


Poppy sits next to the bowl of ice (on a recent hot day). Ingrid the stasher waits for the ice
to get small enough, then stashes all the pieces.


Ingrid enjoys some corn. When it comes to food, either
she's stashing it or eating it. It never just sits around untouched.


Although Poppy used to be much bigger than Kalli, the only real way to tell
them apart now is that little piece of missing ear there on Kalli's left ear.
 


Poppy takes his corn on the cob into the cage. Sometimes one or more of them will actually carry the corn on the
cob to the top of the cage, which isn't easy. Poppy looks back out the cage wondering if there's more corn coming.
 


Ingrid might be a chubby girl, but she still popcorns like a little baby.
 


Here, Ingrid does a little dance next to her new box.
 


Poppy & Kalli inspect the new box. New boxes have to be put in a lot
because Queen stasher Ingrid fills them up pretty quick.


Kalli.


Ingrid.
 


Side view of the table. Note the garbage can on its side
against the wall. This is a favorite sleeping spot.
 


Poppy inside the wooden wine box. You can see a lot of the
chewing history.


Poppy. We have no way of knowing how old Poppy and Kalli
are but I'd guess at this point around a year and a half. Ingrid is
probably around that age as well (she was a full grown adult
when rescued from the MDR rescue)

 
Ingrid and her corn. She is a lot chubbier now than she was when she first came here (a year ago). She absolutely loves people.




Kalli enjoys some green mush, one of the
reasons why their fur is so shiny.


Ingrid chows down on their daily smorgasbord.

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