December 30, 1998

The babies are growing fast. I can't keep their cage close to my room at night, because they squeak loud when they're trying to get milk from their mom, or from when they play. I move the cage out by my desk, and when I come out the next morning, they've gotten litter all around their cage, all over the rug. Just like grown up rats do.

All seven are very playful. When I put the cage back in the hallway (where they can't get out) and open the door, they flood out like water from a broken dam, running all over the hall and all over me. They eat a lot, enjoying all the veggies and fruits now, cheese, cat food and whatever else I give them. All my rats like cheese. It's funny, a couple of these don't. Some of them do, but a couple don't. And they're starting to get like their mom. Pack rats. I'll give them a cheeseball, which is about a fourth of their body size, and one baby will attempt to run off with it, dropping it a couple times, picking it back up and continuing.

Sometimes through the lens, I can't tell Dusty from his mom. Brook is still basically a baby herself. Dusty has her exact same colors and if I don't look closely, I almost can't tell. Soon Dusty will outgrow his mom, though. He is still the friendliest of my rats, although none of them are unfriendly. They all like humans. This little guy also loves to be pet, more than any of the others.

I heard some noise in another room and put the camera down. When I came back, all seven of them were surrounding the camera as if to say "what the hell is this thing he keeps sticking in our faces?" I don't think they figured it out.

The third of the three boys I've named Hercule (after Clouseau's assistant). He is the spitting image of this dad Felix. I've got to pull out pictures of Felix when he was this size and compare them to Hercule. I was going to just keep two of the boys (Kato and Dusty) but I'm leaning towards keeping Hercule too.

Of the email I get regarding my logging the babies, the most is for this little girl. G.G. (for Golden Girl) is far and away the best looking rat in my home. People go crazy for her when they come over. She loves humans. Next to Dusty, she is the one who climbs on me the most. Of the babies, she's the closest to perfection. Her fur is perfect, her eyes are big, he skin is untouched pink and she's super friendly.

Kato is easy to spot because he's got that dot on his forehead. Otherwise, he and Hercule might get mixed up a lot.

As the babies approach the month mark, I start to really search for homes for them. I've had a number of people state they'd like them, but they're all out of town. I will ship if necessary, but I really want to make sure these little ones go to rat homes, people that I know have other rats and are going to spend a lot of time with them. Brooks babies definitely deserve that.