Brook's Babies

I can see!!

Yesterday was the start. The light colored female was the first. Her eyes opened and the first thing she saw after her mom was my big face smiling at her, probably scaring her. Yes, the little ratties have discovered they have a fifth sense. There's a world out there with color and textures and a whole new dimension to their two week old lives starts.

Since they have discovered the power of sight, they have also discovered that they don't have to sit in one place. There are lots of things to see. As more of them opened their eyes over the next 24 hours, the little ones started roaming around the tank. (BTW, I moved them from the ten gallon into a 25 gallon tank. Felix was living in that. I just ended up giving in and buy him a new cage).

My little guy Dusty was all over the place. He finally got to see the person responsible for his mom getting knocked up and his being born (me). The great thing is that since I've been holding them every day since they were four days old, they are totally used to my scent. As I put them all on the bed (while I washed sheets), they would run towards my hands. It was weird. First they would all run to the end of the bed. Once I finally encompassed them within my arms, one went up my sleeve (I had a black sweatshirt on), three went to one hand and the other three to the other. They all snuggled up within my hands and went to sleep. I wanted to get pictures, but I didn't want to move and disturb them. It was great, though. These are true people rats, my friends. The whole night I was holding them, they either wanted to sleep in my hand, or crawl up my sleeve.

She crawled right out of the two and into my hand. They way she is right here is the way she was for a few minutes. All on her own. It's true. You hold them when they're really young, and it helps make them like people. These seven all like being on me. It's really going to be hard giving them up now! (and I know I've said that just about every day).

This is number two that I'm keeping. I've named him Kato (not after the Green Hornet's Kato, but after Inspector Clouseau's Kato). I love that little white dot on his forehead. This is one of the cutest little ones out of the seven. Outside that dot, he's really, really close in fur design to his dad.

Back to sleep. "Yeah, we were running around for ten or eleven minutes. We haven't been to sleep in at least 20. We're very tired and must sleep again. Please don't wake us up for some of these silly antics where you stick that stupid camera in our face and make goofy noises. Really. It only degrades yourself"

Kato moved off by himself here and dozed off (this is a side view from the picture up a ways). Under the towel a few inches in front of him were a couple of his sisters. In the back you can see one of the girls sticking her butt in Dusty's face. Hey, they can see now. Is this behavior necessary?

One thing I discovered the last couple days too is that the light colored girl is not an albino. She's light tan (just like her uncle Claude by the way). She was the first to open her eyes. She is the prettiest of all the babies, in my opinion. Man, I wish I could keep her.

There she is, wondering why she gets photographed so much. She just wants to go back to sleep!

Here's one of the other cute little girls. I love this one too. She's all black except for her feet. I call her Socks, but whoever ends up with her can change her name of course. She is the one who loves sitting in my hand the most (so far).