RIP Bandit

My poor little old man passed away last night. I am heartbroken. 

This was Bandit a little over a year ago when I adopted him and his 3 brothers from a family friend. He was the first one to come out and say hi. 

He loved his hammocks. Every time I put a new one in the cage I would find him checking it out a few minutes later. 

He was a climber and would climb on top of the cage given the chance. 

Posing for the camera. 

He loved to sleep in the fleece cubes and chew them to pieces. 

He was the first rat that my grandson petted. He was such a good boy that day and loved the attention. 

*Bandit was the one on the bottom* Always the curious boy, sniffing and looking around when I opened the cage doors. 

He photo bombed his brother and made me laugh.

He was always ready for some company and always came running to the front of the cage when I came over. 

As he got older, he would fall asleep in the strangest places. Like the food dish with rice and corn still on it. He'd just wake up, clean his face off and eat a little more. My poor old man. 

RIP Bandit

Lucky is 1 Year Old Today!

So we had a birthday party! Now I don't know when his actual birthday is because he was about 3 weeks old when we adopted him on January 2nd of last year. But I figured I'd sorta split the difference, but he's a year old now.

Don't worry, he only got a couple bites of cake. 

But he enjoyed it. 

When Lucky came to us, he was as small as a mouse. I actually thought he might be a mouse when I first saw him. I wrote an article that tells how and why we rescued this little guy. 

A Rescue Tale: How a Tiny Rat We Named Lucky Came into Our Lives

He was so small that we kept him in a 20 gallon aquarium for a few weeks until I was able to get a cage for him and he wouldn't be able to squeeze through the bars. 

He was so tiny that instead of putting in a full size baby blanket to sleep in like I do the other rats, I put a small black cotton sock, which was still three times the size of him. 

But week after week, he grew and grew. 

I fastly found out that him only having three legs wasn't going to slow him down at all. He ran, jumped, played and had more energy than a toddler.

He's a goofy little guy, always wanting to play and give kisses. 

I was a little surprized just how much he kept growing and is still growing. He's actually very long when he stands up. I haven't tried to measure him because he still has so much energy, he would never sit still long enough for me to do so.

As you can see, he's quite happy though.

He's a chewer too. I had to buy a new cage before he was even 5 months old because he chewed a hole through the bottom of the plastic pan. When I put this lava ledge in his cage, he had half of it chewed in the time it took me to make dinner. LOL 

I bought him a brand new fleece cube...and he chewed it to shreds in 2 days.

But he's my little cuddle boy and is always ready to come out, play, give kisses and lay on the couch to watch tv with us. 

He has more personality than any rat I've ever had and I've had 12 including him. 

He shares my food, my home and my heart. 

Happy Birthday little guy!

Have A Fun And Safe New Year!

No matter where you are or what you're doing, make sure you have a safe and fun New Year's Eve.

Happy Raturday!

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

When Do You Take Down The Decorations?

So if you put up Christmas decorations this year, when do you take them down?

I usually leave mine up until January 1st, that way they are up for New Years Eve. Some people can't wait to take them down and some people leave the outside lights up all year. I really don't like lugging out all the boxes but it's nice to have it all done and put away after the holidays are over. 

Weekly Rat Facts: Cage Accessories

Rats are pretty easy to care for and easy to please, you just need a few simple things for their cage to make it fun for them to be in. 

First thing is a sturdy food bowl, and a good water bottle. I always make sure I have an extra water bottle in case one of the rats chews a hole in it and I need to replace it. *It's happened*

Rats love hammocks. All of my boys lay in their hammocks and sleep in them. I have several in the big cage and one in Lucky's cage.

Lucky loves his hammock.

Fleece cubes. They love hanging out in these fleece cubes the only problem is, I have chewers...destroyers of cubes. I usually have to buy several of them and hope they last at least a month because my boys love to chew and destroy these things.

Hanging bird toys are another great thing you can put into your rat cage. Just hang the bird toy from the top of the cage and you rat won't be able to stop himself from chewing, playing and tugging on it.

Fluffy beds, plastic igloos and fleece bedding. I use fleece blankets to cover the shelves as bedding and I put baby blankets inside the beds so they have something to fluff up and lay under. Bandit and Marbles checking out the new bed, cube and hammock that I washed.

Plastic Lixit Critter Space Pod, my boys have all loved these things and you can hang them upside down from the top of the cage or have it sit on a cage shelf. Lucky loves his.

Ledges, ramps and ladders. All of my cages came with ladders but you can also buy these Lava Ledges to make extra ledges for them to hop on. Lucky just chewed his all to pieces. lol 

No matter what kind or how many accessories you put in the cage, make sure you take your rats out and play with them each day. They are social animals and need time with you and time out of the cage. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

This week I received: 

2 samples of coffee

Sample of Zarbee's Naturals

Sample of Clearasil

You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

Review: Hard As It Gets by Laura Kaye

*I won this book in a blog contest*

Tall, dark, and lethal...

Trouble just walked into Nicholas Rixey's tattoo parlor. Becca Merritt is warm, sexy, wholesome--pure temptation to a very jaded Nick. He's left his military life behind to become co-owner of Hard Ink Tattoo, but Becca is his ex-commander's daughter. Loyalty won't let him turn her away. Lust has plenty to do with it too.

With her brother presumed kidnapped, Becca needs Nick. She just wasn't expecting to want him so much. As their investigation turns into all-out war with an organized crime ring, only Nick can protect her. And only Becca can heal the scars no one else sees.

Desire is the easy part. Love is as hard as it gets. Good thing Nick is always up for a challenge...

My Review

Becca Merritt is a nurse and has no idea what her brother has gotten himself into this time. When she reaches out for help, she wasn't expecting to find tall, sexy and tattooed there to help her. 

 Ex soldier Nicholas Rixey is sexy, determined and knows how got get things done. He's also got a few ghosts from his past that he really wants to get rid of. Nick has battle scars, both emotional and physical but he doesn't let that slow him down at all. He has something to do and he does it.

When Nick calls in the surviving members of his Special Forces unit who blame Becca's father for their dishonorable discharge, I wasn't sure how they were all going to work together. You get a bunch of ex soldiers in a room together who aren't all that friendly toward each other and the testosterone is bound to explode.

Becca held her own in this book. She's thrown into situations that she's not prepared for and she holds it together really well. Becca is exactly the type of heroine I like in my romance novels, tough but gentle and caring. Nick is all Alpha male yumminess when he needs to be and the stern but gentle soldier when the time is needed. 

I was waiting and waiting for Becca and Nick to finally get together because I just knew it was going to be hot and I was right. If there's one thing I know from reading some of Laura Kaye's other books is that she knows how to write a steaming hot sex scene and I wasn't disappointed, several times. *wink*

I was thoroughly involved in this story, trying to figure out who kidnapped Becca's brother and why. I like a good mystery, it keeps me thinking. 

I loved how the puppy in the book got her name, that was one of the funniest, sweetest parts in the book. I have a soft spot for three legged animals since I have a three legged rat. 

If you like mystery, action, sexy tattooed ex soldiers and passionate sex scenes then this is exactly the book to read. 

I give this book 5 stars

Hope Everyone Has A Good One

It's My Mom And Dad's Wedding Anniversary...Kinda..

My mom and dad at Christmas time in the 70's sometime. Picture taken at my grandma's house. 

So today would be my mom and dad's wedding anniversary...if they hadn't gotten divorced in 1982. lol 

But, on this day back in 1968, my mom and dad got married. 

My mom passed away 2 1/2 years ago and my dad has been remarried for a number of years, but this is how I remember my parents from when I was little.

Happy Raturday!

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

"Medical" Marijuana in Jail?

I heard on the local news that incarcerated people are not allowed to take and use their 'medical' marijuana in jail or prison and some of the pot card carriers are mad about this. 

This guy who wants to smoke pot in jail

Each jail or prison is different and have different rules and some do not allow any narcotic medications to be taken by the prisoners. So if you come to jail and your doctor had you on pain pills for whatever reason, you will be in detox because you won't be getting it at some of these jails/prisons as seen in this article. 

So do you really think that if the jails/prisons aren't going to allow you pain pills/narcotic meds that they are going to allow you to smoke weed in the facility just because you have a card and call it, "medicine"? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. 

Maybe you should have thought about that before you committed the crime that put you there. 

Weekly Rat Facts: Rat Crafts

We rat people are cuckoo for just about anything to do with rats. We like rat statues, rat crafts, rat clocks ect. So it's no real surprise that I made a rat out of a pine cone and a few other supplies. 

I found a slender, closed pine cone and painted it grey. Cut a couple of ears out of black felt and painted the inside pink and glued them onto the pine cone. 

Next I used popsicle sticks to make the feet. I cut out what I thought looked like small feet and painted them grey with little back toes and glued them to the bottom of the pine cone. Then I glued a tiny ribbon to her head right by her ear and cut a silver pipe cleaner in half and hot glued it to the back of the pine cone. Then I took three black beads and glued them on as eyes and a nose. 

My husband hates it but I think she's kinda cute.