Kirby and his chair.
There is a recliner in my living room. It’s a nice, comfortable chair; roomy and sizable. If you were an animal who liked to stash things, there wouldn’t be a better place than under that chair. There are sections there that I can’t reach. So the three rats that I’ve had over the last three years that have had access to that chair, have always stashed things in there.
The late great Felix was the first. He was putting stuff under there all the time. That was the last time I cleaned out under that chair, when he was around. Then Monty had the living room to himself for about a year. He stashed stuff under there.
Now Kirby owns it. He’s always putting things under that chair. He’s the only rat I’ve ever had that spends as much time sitting on top of the chair as he does under it. Sometimes he just gets on the chair and sits on the end. He kind of watches the whole living room as if he’s saying “this is my place.” I put old rags and towels on there for him to sit under or on top of, which he loves. But also loves underneath the chair as well. Everyday he drags papers under there or runs with his treats to stash them.
So last night I cleaned out the chair for only the second time since I’ve had rats. The first time I had to because it was stinking up the joint. This time, there was no smell, only garbage actually sticking out from under the chair.
And what did I find? Let’s just say Kirby has been a busy boy. Now I see why he liked to spend a lot of time under there. It’s like a little kid who’s made a fort and has all his stuff in it. The kid just wants to spend all his time in there. And that is Kirby. Here is a list of what I found under the chair:
Lots of newspapers. I always see him
dragging them underneath.
Bills. Now I know why I had a couple
“overdue payments.”
Receipts. Were supposed to be for my
taxes.
Plastic bags. From the grocery store,
he loves these.
Ads. That were left on my front door,
sometimes they didn’t make the garbage.
Manuals. No wonder I couldn’t find
my new vacuum cleaner manual.
Blank paper.
Post-its.
Personal notes. I couldn’t figure out
where these went.
Photos. He got off my desk.
Pieces of cardboard.
My socks. A few of them, including
my warm thermal socks.
Pieces of bedding. I have no idea why
he would put his own bedding here.
Oreo cookies. I cannot remember the
last time I had Oreos in my house.
Underwear.He
got out of the dirty clothes basket.
Old dog biscuits. There are literally
three years old, from when I first got rats.
Numerous Cheese crackers.
Numerous Cheetohs.
Over 30 ferret yogurt treats. Fruit,
veggie, cheese, peanut-butter and carob. All like new.
Graham crackers.
Old dried noodles.
Old dried macaroni.
Old dried pepperoni. If I didn’t know
these were pepperoni, I’d have no idea what they were.
Old pieces of pizza.
Pieces of dried bread.
Pieces of dried cheese.
Pretzels.
Other pieces of Chex mix.
Potato and Corn chips.
Rat chew toys he got from his cage.
Honeycomb cerial. I’ve only had this
once, months ago.
Frosted mini wheats.
Corn flakes.
Other cookies. Unidentifiable.
String.
Piece of packing foam.
Styrofoam.
A few other unidentifiable objects.
A VW bumper
A small boy selling chicklets.
Okay, I made the last two up. But the rest are real. And already since
I’ve removed all those bits and pieces, Kirby is working on his next batch
of stashed stuff.