Mimi Passes In the Night

I write this with a very heavy heart. Mimi, our little Siamese licky girl passed away. I walked in the room and she was dead in her cage. Words can not describe how upset this makes me. I told John and he was upset too. "Not my licky girl!"

Mimi was John's baby. She is survived by her cage mate, Junior. She didn't like other females so she needed a macho boy to live with. (She was spayed.)

Lee originally went to pick her up at my request in May 2008 (she was already 8-10 months old). Her family decided they no longer wanted her. Lee tried her living with Clive, but Clive was a push over and Mimi bossed him around. (Clive is neutered.)

I went to get Mimi. I tried to put her with girls and she attacked them all. I had her spayed and then when Junior came, he was introduced as her new buddy. They loved each other very much. Junior looked after his lady.

When Mimi was choking, he pulled a blanket out of the hammock and spread it on the floor for her to lay on. Then he laid right next to her, licking her face while she worked it out.

Mimi has been prepared for private cremation on the Oregon Humane Society.

Run free little Mimi. You can have as many treats as you want!

Ratties Move....New Cage Purchase

Libby has been moved to the downstairs BC-6. She is living next store to Bella. Bella has been moved from the home with the 5 girls. They do ok, but Bella has 4 tumors and Libby needed a friend. Bella was ok with the other group of girls but she was not so bonded that she didn't like the change. She seems to love having a part of a cage to herself and still be able to visit with Libby.

Libby also has a small tumor and she is also pretty old. :( So they are two little old ladies that hang out side-by-side in their hammocks.

Mimi and Junior were moved back downstairs into a BC-6. Junior still gets a bit nervous around a lot of noise but he so enjoys hamming it up when he knows you're looking at him. These are the 2 I hope to put the 2 spayed girls with. Mimi is also spayed of course.

Sherman and Luke are in the lower BC-6. They have lots of fun. I've thrown in lots of newspaper in all of the cages and they've gone to town with making nests. It cracks me up to see the 2 boys in their hammocks with newspaper all around them. They have blankets too but it must be something about the paper. lol

Upstairs, the BC-7s are waiting to be cleaned. Remi is currently hanging out downstairs while this is happening. Remi will be moving into a split BC-7 with Cricket on the other side. Hopefully they will get used to each other so the divider can come out. Potter and Joey are also in a carrier waiting for the BC-7 (they used to live in a BC-6). I've downsized the room to 2 stacks of BC-7 and moved all of the BC-6 downstairs. Of course the 4 custom multi-leveled cages are still up there.

Trixie, Pixie and Boo have moved into Tickle Tower! (Remember Boo is neutered.) So far so good. Since Libby has moved downstairs, she was living in the upper level of the Tower, there was more room to move the 3 in. Boo doesn't know quite what to do. The tower has lots of stuff for them to play in and hammocks to sack out in. Sadly, the matriarch, Shäst, has really slowed down. I'm hesitent to move her though. I put everthing she needs on the level she stays on. Although water is available on all levels. She spends most of the time in the hammock. I don't want to move her out because her friends Lucy and Nona are good company for her and take care of their old friend.


I did purchase a used Quality Cage, BC-11 1/2 cage from a private party. I went to Quality Cages and purchased a stand, as shown in the picture. I also had extra doors made for easier cleaning. I also need to purchase 2 more doors to cover the nest box holes, but that is not a problem! Turns out they made a new product for the chinchilla cages. It is a powder coated metal shelf. So I got 3 of those to try out in this cage. I'll see how they work and might order more, maybe even wider shelves. It's so exciting. The cage is very big, but if I keep it downstairs, which is where it will eventually end up, I can just roll it out the front door to clean. Currently, this cage is in storage.

Anyway, it has been very busy at the village.

Mimi Chokes

At about 9am, I gave my little girl Mimi a piece of homemade tortilla chip. She started to drool and fold her ears back and her mouth opened really wide. I have no car, but my husband works close. Finally at about 9:30, she cleared it. She is now grooming me. Her way of saying sorry for scaring the hell out of me. My husband was ready to fly home and take her to the vet. No more tortillas for her!

One of the touching parts of the event was that Junior dragged a blanket over to Mimi and spread it out so she could lay on it. Then he'd check her mouth and run to the cage door. He gets the hero award today!

Mimi and Junior

I've decided that Mimi and Junior should do very well together. Mimi was acquired through my friend LR. She picked her up with the hopes she'd do well with her neutered boy. Mimi didn't. I took Mimi. Oh, she is such a kissy girl!

Anyway, I've been unable to find someone to bond with Mimi. She does not like other girls. I did have her spayed because I wanted to double her chances of finding a friend for her.

Enter Junior. Junior was saved by CR. He needed some extra special work so he came here. He is doing WONDERFUL.

Anyway, their cages have been side by side for the past several weeks. And they've been playing outside their cages together. I will be changing their cages to one cage with a divider and hopefully, within a few weeks, they will be residing together in rattie happiness.

Rattie Updates

Right now I'm taking care of 60 ratties, 5 will be making their way to Canada before the end of this month as we will be going to pick up our food order. The other 55 are with me. I have many senior ratties. I have 5 over the age of 2, and 2 of these are about 2 months. Then my ratties will hit the 2 year mark in rapid waves. Such a bummer. I'm hoping they stay with me a long time. But...

I still have 4 ratties living on their own. Mimi, she is very bossy and thinks she is a person, but she has NOT bonded with any other rat. Popeetka still is the grumpiest rattie boy and he has chronic respiratory illness! His dad, Mr. Snuggles lives on his own because he has chronic respiratory illness and the other rats chase him around. Sprite also is on her own because she has chronic respiratory illness and gets too winded when other ratties chase her around.

I've got 15 on 2 medicines twice daily. This is to help keep their chronic issues under control. They aren't too pleased with it but it keeps them healthy!

Tonight I have to reweigh the ratties their Revolution doses. Ewww. I should only have to give 2 more treatments until they are eradicated because the bedding now used is fleece.

Anyway, I've got to get back to work!