Post by bubonicapple on Aug 23, 2008 12:52:59 GMT -5
WOAH boy howdy I haven't been here in forever. But I received a couple questions after I posted some time ago about adopting a rat (now two rats), mainly in regard to ratties and ferreties co-existing. I'm going to just copypasta a long rant I posted about such a thing hurr. This is from one of my blogs and I love the sound of my own typing, so sit tight and god save you if you're patient enough to read the whole thing.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Shoe - tuxedo cat who takes herself very seriously
Chaplin Tiberius Ferretmonk - lord of all he surveys
Lucy Fur - girlfriend's ferret and my sworn nemesis
Edgar the Rat - Edgar the Rat, Craigslist rescue and potato
Odette - his spayed girlfriend who is a princess on weekends
Sushi - not mentioned here, but fish and unofficial Emperor of the Apartment.
LONG STORY SHORT, longtime heavyweight champion of the apartment, one Chaplin Tiberius Ferretmonk, defended his position two days ago and absolutely destroyed Shoe. He was inside a box with little holes cut in the side. She stuck her paw in one of the holes. I was alerted of the crime in progress by the sound of CAT SCREAM.
I'm really adversely charmed when Chaplin and Shoe scrap. It usually ends with the Duke himself as the victor, and Shoe sitting at the very top of her cat tree looking pissed. These feats of superhuman strength that unfold between them are the reason why I had cable installed and still have not sat through a whole tv show. I get distracted by the much more interesting and far more awesome battles of brawn - I always intervene, but usually they're honestly just playing rough. Shoe loves Chaplin. When he isn't ruining her life, she drags him around like a kitten and tucks him into her bed with her.
I was prepared for infighting when I brought all these animals home - growing up with two cats and two dogs, I know how animals can throw down. I was ready for Shoe and the ferrets to go head to head, Chaplin and Lucy are locked in constant combat when they aren't ganging up on Shoe, but so far no eyes have been poked out and it doesn't seem overly aggressive so I'm just going to let it be. I'm not going to beg for trouble and delude myself into thinking I could ever leave anybody unattended ever.
HOWEVER.
Edgar and Lucy are enemies from the DAWN OF TIME. Edgar and Chaplin have an uneasy truce; Chaplin sniffs him and moves on in total disinterest, but...okay.
The best way to illustrate the way Edgar and Lucy fight is to show you this footage that was taken of them locked in one of their epic struggles of dominance.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbYlq6O9QkE
Lucy is the big one, for those of you that are unclear. My apartment isn't actually as huge as it looks here, keep in mind Edgar and Lucy are pretty small.
I do my damndest to keep these two separated. Ratties receive free roam time for about two hours in the evening while the ferrets nap, and then when Chaplin and Lucy wake up and are brought out for the rest of the evening, ratties chill out in laps, on shoulders, or sit on the roof of their cage. Nine times out of then, this works out just great - the rat cage is mounted on a three-foot-high base as well, so Lucy can't reach it, but last week I was dumb enough to leave the cage beside a little storage unit, which Lucy scaled, and leapt on to the side of the cage. She got her nose bitten through the bars. Normally, once burned twice shy, but Lucy is also the ferret who burned her nose when she jammed her head in my teacup to see what I was drinking (SPOILER: IT WAS BOILING HOT TEA), hurt herself, then continued to do it as many times as she could over the next hour.
I'm not going to sit here cross-legged in a beautiful forest wonderland and pretend like ferrets and rats can live in spatial harmony, but oh my god Lucy give it a rest.
That's how they're getting along.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Shoe - tuxedo cat who takes herself very seriously
Chaplin Tiberius Ferretmonk - lord of all he surveys
Lucy Fur - girlfriend's ferret and my sworn nemesis
Edgar the Rat - Edgar the Rat, Craigslist rescue and potato
Odette - his spayed girlfriend who is a princess on weekends
Sushi - not mentioned here, but fish and unofficial Emperor of the Apartment.
LONG STORY SHORT, longtime heavyweight champion of the apartment, one Chaplin Tiberius Ferretmonk, defended his position two days ago and absolutely destroyed Shoe. He was inside a box with little holes cut in the side. She stuck her paw in one of the holes. I was alerted of the crime in progress by the sound of CAT SCREAM.
I'm really adversely charmed when Chaplin and Shoe scrap. It usually ends with the Duke himself as the victor, and Shoe sitting at the very top of her cat tree looking pissed. These feats of superhuman strength that unfold between them are the reason why I had cable installed and still have not sat through a whole tv show. I get distracted by the much more interesting and far more awesome battles of brawn - I always intervene, but usually they're honestly just playing rough. Shoe loves Chaplin. When he isn't ruining her life, she drags him around like a kitten and tucks him into her bed with her.
I was prepared for infighting when I brought all these animals home - growing up with two cats and two dogs, I know how animals can throw down. I was ready for Shoe and the ferrets to go head to head, Chaplin and Lucy are locked in constant combat when they aren't ganging up on Shoe, but so far no eyes have been poked out and it doesn't seem overly aggressive so I'm just going to let it be. I'm not going to beg for trouble and delude myself into thinking I could ever leave anybody unattended ever.
HOWEVER.
Edgar and Lucy are enemies from the DAWN OF TIME. Edgar and Chaplin have an uneasy truce; Chaplin sniffs him and moves on in total disinterest, but...okay.
The best way to illustrate the way Edgar and Lucy fight is to show you this footage that was taken of them locked in one of their epic struggles of dominance.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbYlq6O9QkE
Lucy is the big one, for those of you that are unclear. My apartment isn't actually as huge as it looks here, keep in mind Edgar and Lucy are pretty small.
I do my damndest to keep these two separated. Ratties receive free roam time for about two hours in the evening while the ferrets nap, and then when Chaplin and Lucy wake up and are brought out for the rest of the evening, ratties chill out in laps, on shoulders, or sit on the roof of their cage. Nine times out of then, this works out just great - the rat cage is mounted on a three-foot-high base as well, so Lucy can't reach it, but last week I was dumb enough to leave the cage beside a little storage unit, which Lucy scaled, and leapt on to the side of the cage. She got her nose bitten through the bars. Normally, once burned twice shy, but Lucy is also the ferret who burned her nose when she jammed her head in my teacup to see what I was drinking (SPOILER: IT WAS BOILING HOT TEA), hurt herself, then continued to do it as many times as she could over the next hour.
I'm not going to sit here cross-legged in a beautiful forest wonderland and pretend like ferrets and rats can live in spatial harmony, but oh my god Lucy give it a rest.
That's how they're getting along.
So eloquent!