Pose, Darn It!

I didn't have any pictures of some of my newest "Sanctuary Guests" so I thought I'd snap a few tonight. Sanctuary guests, I like that. Anyway, I took a total of 31 pictures of assorted Guests. How many pictures did I end up with that were even half decent? Three. Rats - not so crazy about the posing thing. Coupled with my extra slow shutter speed and I ended up with a lotta crappy shots.

However, here is one of the salvageable shots. Meet Brill.

In case you're wondering, and I know I was, brill is an Eastern European flatfish. Why you would feel compelled to name your rat this, I do not know. Anyway, Brill came to me via craigslist. Brill is an innocent victim of the judicial system. His former owner is (shhhhhhhhhh) ... in jail. Which left Brill in the care of The Roommate. The Roommate did not care for rats. The Roommate wanted the rat gone. So I traded half a case of beer for Brill.

He is a tricky fellow, our Brill. Somehow he knew that I wanted a neutered male for my cage with four girls. So when I picked him up and turned him over, ta da, no Fuzzy Torpedoes of Awesomeness. Sold!

But when I got him home and picked him up? The biggest dingleballs I've ever seen. On a rat. A quick Google check and yes, male rats can retract their testicles when nervous or scared. Splendid. So Brill is living in a cage big enough for four rats with Tinky, my one spayed female. Let this be a lesson to us. If you're looking for a neutered male rat and you're doubting the honesty of the rat in your hand, poke him in the gut and out "they" should pop. Isn't it amazing the things you learn on this blog?

Speaking of learning new things, a big shout out to any Bay Area knitters that St. Anthony's in San Francisco is having a scarf drive. Here is the link in case you're interested. I may have pledged to knit a few scarves, it's all a blur now. Also, and this is something else I didn't know, is that The Yarn Boutique in Lafayette offers 10% off any yarn purchased for charity knitting. I think this is absolutely wonderful and wish more yarn stores would follow suit. I do believe a trip to the East Bay may be in order soon.