Well, I just sat down after doing a massive cleaning of the two large cages that I have. I had Squeaker, Odin and Butters all in the same cage and they’ve lived together for as long as I’ve owned each. But times change.

I now have two ‘new’ boys to take care of as well. They are rescues that I picked up off of Pirattery. Thanks, Kim. These boys are very sweet. Their names are Chin-Po and Mushu. Originally, I was only going to pick up Chin-Po but upon finding out that Mushu was his brother and they were kinda fond of each other, I just had to have them both. And I’m the better for it. They are both wonderful rat boys.

Anyway, back to the cleaning story. Chin-Po and Mushu are definitely calm rats for the most part. They’re still a bit shy even after 3 weeks of staying here. Up until last Thursday, I had taken a hands-off approach to them. I wanted them to get comfortable with where they were before pushing them to be more open and affectionate. And that was tough, mainly because when you watch them, they show so many signs about wanting to be affectionate. When I open the cage, they will come up and poke their heads out to see what’s up and stretch their necks out to see if I am going to pick them up.

I never rushed them. The one thing I have is patience. They need that more than I need them to show affection. So, with that said, I saw enough in them to know that it was time to give them a little push in the right direction. Chin-Po needed the most pushing because he’s very very timid. He’s not overly shy mind you, but he’s just reluctant to be affectionate without proper motivation. Mushu, on the other hand, seems to just spring out of the cage and want to look at everything. He’s still timid mind you, but very exploratory.

So, all the rats got a bath and everything they had were scrubbed. Butters and Squeaker will be put in their own cage and Odin, who is blind but very sweet, will now live with Chin-Po and Mushu. I’m hoping that by introducing them to a rat I know will allow handling that they will see how easy it is and behave similarly.

We shall see. I’m hoping this will work to their benefit. I know it’ll still be a bit rough on them having to learn to live with a new pal. The point is that rescuing rats is a rewarding thing to do. Patience and understanding how they think is a key, though.

Here’s to Chin-Po and Mushu, though.