Weekly Rat Facts: They Learn To Ignore You

Usually when I go to the cages in the morning to do a spot cleaning and clean out the potty areas, they all come running to play and see what treat I've brought. But sometimes they will ignore me, play hard to get and stay in their beds to see if I will come to them. Flower did that to me the other day. She stuck her head out of the cube to see what I was doing... and when I didn't give her a treat...

She laid back down inside the cube but kept peeking at me until she heard the crackle of the food bags and then she came running over. I found it quite amusing.

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.

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

This week I received:

A notebook and pen set from Chatabout
Diapers and Wipes
Tums chewables
Tums Refreshers

Las Vegas Sky

Last week we had rain clouds right as the sun was setting and I thought they would make good pictures. I was right.

This was taken from the alley behind my apartment complex.

The clouds let out a little rain and a few bolts of lightning but then went away.

I live really close to a few stores, that's why there are so many signs. Plus on the far left is the off ramp to the freeway.

I thought the sky looked pretty cool though.

And I got a pretty good shot of the moon.

Recipe: Chayote Squash

When Ken went to the store I asked him to pick up some more fresh fruits and vegetables and even some we hadn't tried before so I was excited when he came back with this squash because I've never made it or eaten it before. 

I asked a few friends on fb if they knew any good recipes for it but they were no help..LOL So I decided to make mine with some onion.

So I looked online and found a few ways to make it but no real good recipes so I made my own way to make it.

First I peeled and diced it into large chunks.

Then I boiled it for a few minutes to get it soft.

In the mean time I diced a yellow onion and sauteed it in a little butter.

I added a little more butter when I added the squash.

When the Chayote was softer, I drained it and added it to the onions and sauteed them for about 10 more minutes until cooked all the way through. I added salt, pepper and season salt to this and served it with the rest of the dinner I made. I came out really good. It has a mild apple/pear flavor but it's very mild and this would soak up and flavors you added to the pan to cook it in. 

Rats Eating Ice Cream

I grabbed an ice cream cone out of the freezer and turned around and all the rats were starring at me. So I gave them all a bite. each video is only a few seconds long because they all did the same thing...grab as much in their mouth and spit it out to eat in their cage. lol


Flower grabbed a good mouthful.



I think Scribbles grabbed more than the rest and he spit it out to eat.

They were happy.

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. 

*click pictures to enlarge*

Medical Marijuana, Guns and Child Abuse

So recently I read an article that stated that in Las Vegas the laws are such that you can have a Medical Marijuana Card or a gun but you can't legally have both. According to 8 News Now, "Essentially, anyone who has a medical marijuana card can legally possess marijuana in southern Nevada, but not a gun. And a card holder who bought a gun legally -- and then obtained a card -- is supposed to give that gun up. It's a problem that's just beginning to take shape but is likely to grow as legal marijuana dispensaries open and more people obtain medical marijuana cards. Under federal law, you can't buy any kind of firearm if you have a state-issued medical marijuana card because marijuana is still illegal federally."

Now I don't have a problem with this law as you probably could guess. I've been stating my opposition for regulated, legal marijuana for a long time and will not stop because it shouldn't be legal. It's not a medicine it's a drug that people use to get high...simple as that. 

I know someone who started smoking "medical marijuana" a few years ago because they needed it for supposed anxiety, back pain, headaches, and PTSD related symptoms. So how come a few years later after having been smoking themselves silly they still don't have relief from any of these things? They still don't go out because they still have anxiety, still have supposed back and head pain and still supposedly are suffering from PTSD..so how is it working? It's not! That's my whole point. Omg open your drugged out, blood shot eyes and realize it's not working. 

Recently I read another article that tells of people who are losing their kids because they have medical marijuana in the house with minor children. Some don't see this as child abuse but if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time you know that I do, as I've talked about just this subject before. I consider it child abuse because no matter what room in your house you smoke it, the smoke is going to drift into other parts of the house and your minor children ARE going to be exposed to pot which is a drug and that in and of itself should be enough for child abuse charges to be brought against you. 

I would actually like a law that went a step further and banned anyone who had minor children from getting a Medical Marijuana Card until the minor children were over the age of 18. It doesn't even matter if the kids don't live with the parents full time because parents have weekend visitation at times when couples have split up or divorced and kids should never be exposed to marijuana.

It looks as though pot is here to stay but the laws governing it need to play catch up so that kids, pets, and people who don't want to be exposed to drugs, aren't. 

Weekly Rat Facts: Sleeping

Rats will sleep in different positions depending on how they feel. 

For example if it's hot in the place they are being kept they will flatten themselves as much as possible and lay splayed out and not in their beds. Although some rats will sleep like this for no reason. 

If there are more than a few rats in a cage together, they will sometimes lay in what we call rattie piles. Where you would think the one on the bottom can't breathe but they are just fine and comfortable. 

Lucky in the above picture has started laying on his back for whatever reason. He's been doing it for sometime now and I guess he just found a new position he really likes. 

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.

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

This week I received: 

I won a book from a blog contest on SOS Aloha called Betrayed by Rebecca York

A sample of Biolage Shampoo and Conditioner

A sample of Murad Acne Clearing Solution

A Sample of Olay Regenerist

I also won a $10 Amazon gift card from Shelley Munro's blog contest. You should definitely check out her blog. She's an author and writes very tempting, romances. 

So did you win anything or receive any freebies this week?

Foster Care

 I've heard a lot recently about the foster care system and how some kids are better off being taken away from their parents if the parents are doing drugs, can't care for them ect. But I can tell you from experience that that's not always the case.

When I was 17 years old my mom ended up serving time in prison for child endangerment, child abuse and possession of cocaine. My brother and I ended up in foster care. He was only in foster care for about a month before he went to live with our dad. I knew my dad and step mother were using drugs and drinking and that he was very abusive so I told the judge I didn't want to go with him so I lived in a foster home for 6 months when I was 17 years old. My foster mother didn't like having someone as old as me and she let me know it every chance she got. My foster mother locked all of us in our rooms at night at 8pm and didn't let us out until 8am the next morning. We had a bucket in the room that we used for a bathroom and we had to empty it in the morning. She said she locked us in because some of us weren't allowed to go outside or have unsupervised phone conversations. I told my social worker and she said it was fine for her to do.

Before we were allowed to eat oatmeal in the morning we had to finish our chores which usually took an hour. The other 6 girls in the foster home with me were all really young, all under the age of 11. There were two sisters that got there the same time I did, one was 11 and one was 5 years old. Their parents had died in a car crash and their social worker was looking for another other family members to come take them. But they were there the entire 6 months I was.

The 5 year old would cry for her parents all the time and "linda" my foster mother would lock this poor girl in the bedroom until she stopped crying. Again, I told my social worker and she said it was fine. The last time I went to court, I was taken into the judges chambers and told that I couldn't go back to my foster parents home because my foster mother called the court and told them that I had set fire to her family bible that had been sitting on the living room table right before I left.

Now I will tell you right now that I did no such thing. She was just sick of me being there and questioning her methods and reporting her to my social worker. So I ended up going home with my dad. My dad and step mother spent all of their money on drugs so all we had to eat for over a month were potatoes but because they didn't pay the power bill we couldn't cook them on the electric stove, my brother and I had to take our potatoes out to the gas grill in the pool courtyard of our apartment complex and bbq them. We did this everyday for over a month. When my mom got out of prison we went to live with her. Thankfully she was no longer doing drugs at that point.

My dad and step mother no longer drink or do drugs and they don't even remember most of the things they did when they were high.

So I have a slanted view on foster care and foster homes.

Big Brother

Have you heard of this reality tv show? I actually don't want much reality tv, it just seems so fake and scripted but I have a confession to make. I watch Big Brother and I love it.

Hangs head in shame...

And the totally hilarious thing is that I've now got ken watching it even though he won't admit it. Ken will sit at the computer and act like he isn't listening but then he'll ask me, "What just happened? Who is HOH? Who got voted out?" lol

He'll sit on the couch with me acting like he isn't interested but one time when I didn't pause it when he went to the kitchen he was mad. LOL

Yep, I got hubby hooked as well.

My Grandson Turns 18 Months Old

In a couple of days this little guy will be 18 months old. Time fly's let me tell you. He looks like someone spiked his milk. lol 

Such a happy kid.

When he saw I was getting the camera while I was babysitting him, he ran over to the couch and smiled like this. lol 

"Yeah milk" lol 

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. 

*click pictures to enlarge*

Bugs

For some reason these tiny beetles come out in the summer time and love to make their way into my kitchen. I've caulked, sprayed, put a door stopper down, put a towel in front of the front door and taped up the windows and still...they get in. 

But since i'm now some sort of bug savior..I pick them up and take them outside. The other day a saw a spider on my foot, I just wiggled my foot until he got off and Ken heard me say, "Go eat some other bugs, spidey." And I let him scurry away. 

Yeah, I've gone completely insane.

Birthday Party for a Pet

Before I had rats, I had hamsters. That's why the name of my blog address is... scary mary the hamster lady. lol Back when I made this blog I had 12 hamsters. All together I've had 19 hamsters in my life time. I like hamsters, they are really cute but they aren't as social, loving or friendly as rats are. So now I have rats. But I still love hamsters which is why I found this video to be so incredibly cute.

Good to know I'm not the only one who throws their pet a birthday party....

You may remember the party I had for Lucky's 1st birthday. I even baked him *me* a cake. LOL

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.

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

This week I received: 

A sample of Meow Mix cat food. *I put this out for the stray cats in my neighborhood.*

A sample of Nexxus Color Assure

A sample bottle of Olay Body Wash

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Funny Liquid Plumr Commercial

I wonder what people 30 years ago would think of some of the commercials that are on tv now a days.

Rat Update

Scribbles had been battling an eye allergy but as you can see is all better now. He was so good about letting me wash his face off several times a day. He's become my little social man. When I first rescued him from a woman who didn't want him, he wouldn't even let me pet him. Now he jumps up and down when he sees me because he's happy to see me and wants to come out to play. 

Flower was recently checking out the pink *not purple* dinosaur. For those of you that read romance books and get swag, yes that's a Cheryl Dragon *dragon* . I got it in a box of swag *pens, bookmarks ect* Flower is still hyper as heck and still dive bombs my shirt but loves to come out and play now. When I got her from the same woman I rescued Scribbles from, she wasn't socialized at all and wouldn't let us get close to her with our hands. She is very social and loving now. 

As you may know from previous posts, Lucky had his first bath recently. He didn't freak out like some rats do and loved being held and cuddled in a blanket afterwards. He's cleaning his face in this picture even though it looks like he's praying to the treat gods for a yogi. lol 

I found this funny and true

*click on picture to enlarge.*

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. 

*click pictures to enlarge*