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The Ratty Fun Pages |
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The Ratty Fun Pages |
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| Stat!
Cinnamon berkshire 11.6.2000 - 22.4.2003 |
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Stat! and his best buddy Nimbus were adopted from Carawatha Rodents in July 2000 to be new friends for Dapper soon after his best buddy, Fudge, left us. Stat! got named because he was the fastest bit of fur on four legs as a ratlet, but this changed considerably when he mellowed into a big squishy lazy old fuzz. He was known mostly as StattyRat or Stattles.
Stattles was an incredibly sweet, quiet and sensitive ratty, who was never ever any trouble. He was always pristinely groomed, never a fur out of place and had a humble innocence about him. He always used his litter tray. He was often referred to as Mr Perfect. His face was so amazingly expressive... so adorably beautiful, but he always seemed to have a puzzled or worried appearance (no doubt from living most of his life with Nimbus), which made you want to pick him up, cuddle him and tell him everything was OK. He mellowed considerably in old age, becoming the perfect lap rat... huge, lazy, warm and cuddly.
He was famous for his impressive eye boggling, cheeky practical jokes, and being shy of showing anyone his gorgeous soft berkshire belly. He was a hammock dweller. A foofferdome shredder. A hand licker. A lover of avocado sushi rolls.
When Nimbus left us, Stattles moved in with Bramble and the two got along perfectly together... a pair of charming old lazy rats who loved nothing more than a cuddle and as many treats as possible. After the loss of Bramble, he enjoyed living alone, socialising during free range time with Bokeh and Roof. He accepted other rats so graciously.
Stattles was healthy his whole long life, and left us quickly and peacefully just short of his 3rd birthday. He will always be remembered as our oldest, squishiest, kindest and most adorable old fuzz. We miss you Stat! the Rat.
Baby StattyRat goes rock
climbing
Statty lurking in his favourite
tube
Stat! The Rat ready to pounce
Statty stops to smell the
flowers
Flat fat rat Stat!
A bowl of cinnamon fuzz
Stattles gets a cuddle with
his current cagemate Bramble
Stattles, always so perfectly
groomed
Stattles in camouflage (his
favourite shredded foofferdome)
The old Stattles - boggly
eyes, mottled fur, squishily lazy
... and yet more adorable
than ever
StattyRat has taken up surfing.
He was running around on
our computer desk the other day, investigating, peeing, nibbling, the usual
stuff. Anyway, he was trying to reach up to the top of the stereo
unit we have on the desk, so he climbed on top of an upside down computer
mouse as a step and reached from there. However, it's one of those
curvy mice, so it was quite unstable. He had one foot either side
of the mouse ball (he's a goofy foot, by the way) and his arms and tail
out for balance. The mouse was rocking this way and that, but he was riding
it perfectly! Looked just like he was surfing.
When I wheel The Grotto home to the rat room in the evenings just before I go to bed, the boys know it's fresh vegie time. I give them a different raw fresh vegie each night for them to munch on during the night, so they're usually hanging wildly and impatiently from the cage wire in anticipation. None more so than StattyRat. He loves his vegies, in particular kale, broccoli and corn on the cob.
Unfortunately, the other night the cupboard was bare... and all I had to offer the boys was a piece of apple. I knelt down to offer Statty his piece and he leaped towards me all excited, adorable expression of anticipation on his innocent little face. He took one sniff and with a heartbreaking expression of "Oh!", his bright face slumped in disappointment. He was completely crestfallen. With wobbly lower jaw, he tentatively and dutifully took the piece of apple off me. After all, Stat! would never dream of not accepting something his beloved mum offered him. But he was so obviously disappointed that he almost had me in tears! If there had been a shop open I would have gone out to buy him something!
No other rat in The Grotto can affect me like this. The others give me their defiant "What the hell is THIS?" attitude or the scoffing "You expect me to eat THIS?" look. But Statty takes things so personally... he has such an expressive face and I can't help but feel totally inadequate when I disappoint him. I just hope I don't do it too often... my heart can't take any more of those crestfallen expressions from such a sweet, innocent sensitive little ratty.
Well, it seems I survived the heatwave, the biliousness of Christmas holiday feasting, the intense bush fires, the endless cooking, the aftermath cleanup and even looking after two girl rats in addition to the rampant beastliness of my seven troublesome ones. I'm strong. I can handle this kind of stuff. What I can't handle is a pining StattyRat...
Statty is so sweet and sensitive and lovable and shy and, did I say sweet? His face, in particular his dark soulful eyes, are so expressive that I fall like putty into his hands when he looks at me.
Since the girls moved in (we were rat sitting for a few weeks), he's been a different rat! He's still all the wondrous charm of the usual Statty, but with an extra oomph of animation, cheerfulness and determination. I love this new StattyRat!! But he also breaks my heart... He is so desperate to get to the girls, he spends most of his day squished against the wire, soft thick cinnamon fur poking through, trying to push The Grotto door open so he can reach his girls. Yes, HIS girls. When he realises he's not getting out, he sits there and gives me the most pleading look you've ever seen... "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeese, Mum! Can't I have a girl? Pleeeeeeeeeeaase.. <furry chin wobble> But I've been good all year...".
I couldn't help but give this rat anything he wanted. I love him so much. It breaks my heart to see him like this and not be able to give him what he wants. He gets so excited when he can smell them on me, and he velcroes to my shirt ("Stat!ic Cling") and sniffs me for hours. I'm taking advantage of these moments to cuddle him and scritch him and massage him and tell him I love him and try to find a way to explain why I can't give him what he desperately wants. <sigh> Poor StattyRat...
If I were a girl rat, I'd choose StattyRat. He's the type of sensitive buck who would bring flowers and phone the next day. I shudder to think of how Nimbus would treat a girl rat...
Stattles has become the biggest squish lately. He was always rather impressive, but lately he's been enjoying all the extra food I have to leave in the cage for Nimbus.
He was out free ranging this morning and as usual, he was parked at the food bowl having breakfast. Awhile later I glanced over to find Stattles perched on top of the water bowl... two hands on one side, two feet on the other. Just standing there in his usual dignified manner... except that his expansive belly was draped down between his feet and lying IN THE WATER! Due to his well-paddedness, this predicament obviously hadn't registered with Stattles yet.
A few moments later (no doubt while wondering what mum was laughing so hard about) he felt a strange cool dampness on his belly and leapt off the bowl like he'd been bitten by it! Inspecting his belly frantically, he was appalled to discover it WET. Mr Perfect StattyRat had a WET BELLY! Now, for any other rat this would mean simply a "Doh!" and a groom. But Stattles was MORTIFIED. I rushed over to him with a towel and dried him off, all the while Statty was beside himself with distress. He doesn't like anyone to see his belly, let alone see it wet!! And he's always so pristinely groomed. I cuddled him and he buried his face in the crook of my arm. "Don't worry, Stattles." I said soothingly "No one else saw you." He was somewhat subdued all morning after that.
Stattles was out free ranging in the loungeroom one night and, as expected, headed straight for the ratlet table area to investigate and power sniff the new fuzzlets. In the corner he discovered a wonderful playground area comprising a small stack of bath mats (used as bedding in the ratlet cage) topped with an upturned small rat igloo filled with fabric strips. This was obviously too tempting for any rat, because a few minutes later we heard a soft thump... and what we found was too hilarious to describe adequately in words. <sigh> Wish we'd had the camera handy.
The igloo had toppled off
the stack of towels and was now sitting upright on the floor, perfectly
atop a fabric strip strewn Stattles.
Stattles was lying spread-eagled,
pinned on his back by the igloo, ineffectively squirming and trying to
right his enormous squishy
bulk. The look on
his face was priceless. Statty is renowned for his permanently worried
expression, but this was a combination of
mortification, desperation
and a large dash of sheepishness.
Poor Stattles... he took on a ratlet igloo and lost. :)
Statty is so perfect that when I feed him a grape, he cheerfully climbs into his hammock to eat it, but then can't sleep in the hammock because his fur will get wet and sticky from the grape skins. So post-grape he moves into the nestbox until I clean the grape skins out of his hammock for him. Then he returns to his hammock. Wouldn't want Mr Perfect to sleep in a grapey mess.
More tales of Statty and his friends on the Ratty Ramblings page.
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