Rat-Sitting

My last pet rat Mazik died on election day in 2008.  Here he is as a youngster:

Due to Nev's crazy bad allergies we never repopulated the cage, and we both terribly miss having the vermin around.  A week ago a friend asked if I'd mind rat-sitting a mum and her 5 (3 week old) babies for the weekend as she was going away.  

As luck would have it, we still hadn't moved Alex into her own room, so there was somewhere to stash them away from cats and away from Nev's nose.  Mum was due to stay for the weekend but I was sure she wouldn't mind sharing a room.

"Pleeeasseee?  They're just eepers, they shouldn't make you too stuffy like our boys did!!"  

"I've never looked after baby rats before!"

"I'll vacuum and dust her room when they're gone!"

I got a reluctant do what you want kind of response, which I took as a "sure honey, it'll be your last chance before that room is occupied, go for it!"  

This litter is half-wild.  Mama rat was found in someone's garden, and is very very friendly.  They were great fun to have for the weekend, and it doesn't get much better than having a pile of bruxing eepers in your lap.  <3  

I also took the opportunity to take some photos, though they were a lot zippier than my lazy boy rats used to be!  

Here's mama:

And various babies:

If you'd like to see the rest of the pics, click on my flickr gadget on the left sidebar.