Rattitude - Where Rats Rule! » rants

Pet Heaven Trial to be Continued … in October!

Mr.Rattitude — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:52:22 +0000

Another article dealing with this supposed trial can be found here.

This all seems to be stemming from a few grieving pet keepers; and, in my humble opinion, a veterinarian that brought this upon himself, and Pet Heaven, through a lack of clear communication. A Russian translator being used in the courtroom seems more a tactic than a necessity, but I am only reading the details from the articles not attending the proceedings in person.

The trial has now been scheduled to be continued in October! This leads me to believe there is no urgency in the courts to address this matter. I’ll be adding the October 1-2 dates into my calendar to keep up to date with this all the same.

Unusual Rat Laundry Day

Mr.Rattitude — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:48 +0000

Another Tuesday and another day of rat laundry. I do the rat laundry after work at a coin-op laundromat around the corner from our home.

Today was a bit different than usual. Usually there is no one else doing laundry at this time so all is good. I can put on a podcast or a random playlist and distract myself with some sort of application on my iPod. Today there was a family doing laundry that I had not seen before.

Now far be it for me to pass judgement on others, but I simply cannot understand how some people can apparently dress up to do chores such as laundry or groceries. This family was like that, all very well dressed, the mother, two sons, and a daughter. I just do not understand why.

What I understand less though is how these same people will give others looks of disdain and whisper behind their backs after looking at their laundered items. That is what I experienced today, or at least that is what I perceived to have happened.

Admittedly the rat laundry looks like a bunch of rags and for all intent and purpose that is exactly what they are. That does not mean I take any less care in washing, drying, folding and putting back into the hampers. I treat the rat laundry with the same care as I treat Mrs.R and my own clothes that I wash at the same laundromat.

I guess I just find it to be such a sign of either ignorance or arrogance that a simple bit of communication would have solved. The great mystery of public rat laundry.

I await the day someone asks me why am washing what I do; and, I am sure I will savor their expression when they learn my answer.

Would you ask? Leave a comment explaining how you would approach the situation.

Pet Rat Barred

Mr.Rattitude — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:49:40 +0000

I believe every rat deserves a proper education. There is no reason they should be segregated or forced to be home-schooled. I claim racial injustice on behalf of rats everywhere.

Just kidding … well, not really … the point is well said with this quote from the article:

I don’t understand why he is not being allowed to take his pet in school, his friend has taken in a hamster in before now.

I may have a biased opinion, but rats are much more social and tolerate handling by strangers a lot better than a hamster would. A true hands-on experience for the show-and-tell study with a pet rat would have much more of an impact than just being near forced to only watch a hamster in a cage.

This is not the first time I have made light of this school decision, and I will likely write on similar cases as I come across them.

Educate our rats … and our teachers, too!

Pet rat barred from classroom (From The Bolton News)

No related posts.

Rats Are Not Arsonists

Mr.Rattitude — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:24:23 +0000

Flaming Pet Rat Starts Fire, Damages Titusville Home – News Of The Strange Story – WFTV Orlando

This is NOT the fault of the pet rat!!! Please read the whole story to see the real person responsible for this. Sensationalistic journalism is such a poor excuse for finger-pointing reporting.

Maybe the strange sells newspapers, or gains advertising revenues, but this is simply a case of very poor inebriated judgement. The real culprit of this story is the supposed pet rat keeper, and as far as I am concerned that situation should be very closely reviewed by the local SPCA.

Open Questions to Harlan-Teklad

Mr.Rattitude — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:25:00 +0000

Harlan-Teklad arguably manufactures one of the best, if not the best, rodent diets available. I use the word available very loosely here as it is not sold, to the best of my knowledge, in a retail environment approved by Harlan-Teklad.

The big-box pet stores do not sell it; feed stores do not sell it; small independent pet shops do not sell it; and, yet it still makes it way into the homes and mouths of pet rats throughout North America.

There are great organizations that have managed to create a service to their “customers” so they are able to provide this best in market food. There are great individuals that go out of their way to help others acquire this manna for their “babies”.

I find it truly amazing that there is a major distribution center for Harlan-Teklad diets (and other products?) less than 10 minutes drive from where I live, yet I cannot find anywhere that sells it. Granted this diet was designed for laboratory rats, but it is the best food I can feed to my rats, IMHO. I see no reason why I should want anything less than the best.

So, I ask these questions:

Why is it, with a market that is readily available, a manufacturer would create a selling practice to practically exclude sales from a specific sector? This sector shows one of the fastest growing spending metrics in current retail trends. (*Hint: Pet related purchases, especially premium items.)

Why, after many years, would a manufacturer decide that a product made on a regular production schedule would require it’s minimum purchase to be increased 10 times?

These questions are only two that I am asking, but throughout the Internet on various forums and other postings similar questions are being posed. Rat keepers and other rodent aficionados are trying to develop plans of action to meet these extreme measures the manufacturer apparently is applying to a great product.

Again, I ask: Why?

Eyes Wide Open

When a "Sale" Price is More Not Less

Mr.Rattitude — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:44:00 +0000

It seems the french have it right … it seems a particular Canadian “big-box” retail furniture store’s name, in french, is a four-letter word, and I think I know why.

OK, so this isn’t really rat related, but I’ve stewed on this long enough and something needs to be said. Mrs.Rattitude and I were looking to buy a small freezer, not just for our own uses, but also to use for stock-piling some dry foods for our little ones … this would lead to another ponderance about Harlan-Teklad, but not in this particular blogging.

We were shopping online at the various big-box and larger department style stores near were we live to get an idea for prices. We checked all of the ones we could think of and found a relative small range of prices, but when we heard that our french four-letter word store was have a big sales event (for at least this week) I decided to check the price again thinking: Great! I’m good to buy something from this “Canadian” store and it just so happens that I work for a company that supplies equipment to the freezer’s manufacturer as well so this would be a great win-win scenario all around.

Well, it ain’t gonna happen!!!

I checked the prices on the retailer’s web site. I saw they actually raised their prices 10 percent then put them on “sale” by taking 10 dollars off, so I would actually have to pay 20 percent more to buy the particular freezer on sale now!

If for no other reason than this, I have no intention to even window shop online at this retailer ever again, nor will I ever venture into one of their supposed SuperStores, again … and I “could throw a stone and hit one” from where I work.

Since I cannot condone this kind of business practice I will make sure to tell everyone I know how this french four-letter word store sets “sales” prices … with this specific example.

Mea Culpa

Why?

Mr.Rattitude — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:21:00 +0000

Sometimes I have to stop and give my head a good shake … then go back and re-read, and re-read again some things I find.

It was with great sadness that I read a recent eulogy from a rat keeper. The rats appeared to have lead good lives. But, as can sometimes happen, all came down with one illness or another, some attributed to age, some to more serious illnesses … except one!

One of the rats was simply put down!

Yes, I said put down!

I really dislike that phrase … put to sleep (pts on several forums) sounds so much kinder and gentler, but when a rat is by all accounts healthy, happy, and hale there is no reason for it to not be provided a better home … putting it down seems so senseless.

Given the individual wrote with a compassion that appears genuine, I could not bring myself to ask the question in a reply, so I leave the question rhetorically open here. Why?

Forward to the Year of the Rat

Pine, Cedar … No! Emphatically NO!

Mr.Rattitude — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:28:00 +0000

Just something that has been bothering me for a while, and quite honestly I don’t know how much I will be able to do about it … but I’m going to at least try.

I’m not going to go into all the details or studies about how “bad” aromatic wood is for rats. By aromatic wood, I’m writing about pine and cedar. It’s not so great for other small animals either, but for rats it’s especially bad!

The oils that create the scent will eventually cause scarring in the lungs of rats and dramatically reduce their life expectancy and their quality of life.

There are plenty of other commercially available nesting materials that are much more safe for rats. You can even use clean rags, or clean pieces of fleece, or even old clean clothes if you wish … and if you are of the environmentally friendly persuasion, you can re-use these materials by simply throwing them in the laundry and using a “scent-free” detergent (no fabric softener, preferably … again due to scent).

So, if you happen to come across a pet store that is using pine shavings or cedar shavings for their rats, let them know that it’s not healthy for the little guys and girls. Perhaps make suggestions to use some of whatever non-aromatic wood nesting materials they already stock.

Depending on your zeal you may need to buy the correct litter for the store’s rats yourself to drive the point home to the owner/manager of the store! If they still don’t get the idea, you could offer to rescue them all, since they they are not adopting out these rats in my not-so-humble opinion, they are selling chattel!

I don’t name names in my rants … but this issue might change that …

Provided for reference purposes:

Both cedar and pine shavings contain phenols, the oils in the wood that give them their fresh and woodsy smell. Phenols are poisonous, caustic, acidic compounds present in soft woods, and are routinely diluted for use in disinfectants (such as Pine-Sol and Lysol) and cover the smell of animal urine. Because phenols are caustic, they constantly irritate the nasal passages, throat and lungs which gives an easy opening to bacteria. Phenols affect the kidneys and liver, the organs responsible for filtering blood and urine and eliminating toxins from them. Long-term exposure to phenols can cause liver damage and make the animal very sensitive to anesthetics. Exposure to phenols can also depress the immune system, thus causing lowered resistance to diseases such as respiratory infection. Pine and cedar shavings are toxic to small animals and should not ever be used.

from the RMCA.org FAQ http://www.rmca.org/Resources/rmcafaq.htm

Four More from the THS