Rattitude - Where Rats Rule! » raves

The Other Side

Mr.Rattitude — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:33:49 +0000

We have been successfully transferred to our new hosting service.

From beginning to end, it was about 20 hours, give or take an hour. The servers are roomier, and faster, too. It was also a pleasant surpise to see a long forgotten feature of the RatChatter.com forums appear, the spell checker. Thanks HostGator!

As one of the RatChatter members said, “see you on the other side.” Well, here we are. Welcome to the other side.

TeeTu – Rest in Peace

Mr.Rattitude — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:23:56 +0000

TeeTu, or as he had recently become known as, our Chi-Rat, left us last night. He was an ornery little cuss, and we loved him dearly for that. He was our oldest boy, but that did not slow him down. Nothing did, at least until last night.

After work, Mrs.R and I came home to TeeTu in apparent respiratory distress of some sort. We tried to see if perhaps it was a piece of food lodged in his throat or something similar, but he was not cooperating in any fashion. He was gasping for breathe an becoming more and more agitated as the minutes passed. It was time for a vet visit, hopefully a professional would be able to solve this quickly.

I called our rat vet. I cannot say enough good things about this man. An animal lover of absolutely no doubt, Dr. Aziz of Aquitaine Animal Clinic. He offered us an appointment in an hour, then said I will see you then I am just waiting for you. When I said we could leave immediately, he said in his peculiar accent, “come!” We were there in less than 10 minutes.

TeeTu received a full exam. The doctor, working on his own due to it being late in the day, tended to TeeTu, a rambunctious pup that had suffered a severe allergic reaction, and an individual that brought in their cat to be euthanized. All at the same time. TeeTu after being examined and having his temperature uncomfortably taken, was moved to the procedures area. As Mrs.R held TeeTu, Dr. Aziz administered gas to begin sedating TeeTu to continue an even more thorough examination.

A small lump was found in TeeTu’s throat area; the shaver was used to remove the fur in the area; a fine needle aspiration was made; slides made; stains created; and, microscopic analysis was done. TeeTu had the beginnings of a cancerous type of tumor, and it was inoperable. Fortunately it was also very small and with medication the doctor suggested it may be possible for TeeTu to continue for possible another six months.

We took TeeTu home with instructions for giving him MetaCam for reducing the inflammation he was suffering, that was the apparent cause for his gasping breaths. We were also to give TeeTu an antibiotic as the MetaCam is considered an immunosuppressive medication. An infection in TeeTu’s condition would be very bad. We gave TeeTu his first does of MetaCam, which appeared to help. We tried to help clear his nasal passages as the doctor showed us how to, TeeTu would have nothing to do with that. Our Chi-Rat, ornery little one that he was! TeeTu became extremely agitated shortly after that.

Mrs.R recognized the signs … she picked up TeeTu and held him close.

TeeTu entered into a very short, but severe, bout of convulsions. Then he became very quiet, and subdued. Then he passed as Mrs.R stroked his back and told him how much we loved him.

Rattitude on Widgets

Mr.Rattitude — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:55:20 +0000

OK, I broke down and took a look at using widgets. Yes, it was painful, but in the end it was worth it, even if was for nothing else but the added aesthetic value.

The reason to get widgetized, was rather simple, I wanted to make use of a great plugin, WP-dTree by Ulf Benjaminsson, that apparently is only usable as a widget. I’m quite happy with the new category menu, and the new archives/monthly menu. I am also very happy with the pages menu which is what I wanted to “fix”. It wasn’t broken really, but it did need a certain something and the collapsible menu is just what it was.

Now that we are using widgets, what do you think? Drop us a comment and let us know.

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Planet of the Cats

Mr.Rattitude — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:44:53 +0000

Besides being a rat lovers, we love other animals, too, especially our cats (and our rabbit).

This is a great video to promote a cat sanctuary, please watch and enjoy …

… and don’t forget to visit theire web site at: http://www.cathouseonthekings.com

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A Fortunate Find

Mr.Rattitude — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:09:31 +0000

The best doctor in the world is the veterinarian. He can’t ask his patients what is the matter-he’s got to just know.
~~ Will Rogers (1879 – 1935)

I believe Will Rogers would have had Dr. Alaa Aziz of Aquitaine Animal Hospital in mind if he was able to say this today.

We discovered Dr. Aziz quite by accident. We were not looking for a new vet per se, but we were keeping an eye out for a veterinarian that was more comfortable with rats than our long time cat vet. We were actually running an unrelated errand when we noticed the new clinic. We stopped in and chatted with Dr. Aziz and his family/staff. They are all quite nice and the doctor himself is very forthcoming and quite knowledgeable with regards to rats.

Dr. Aziz has treated three of our rats so far. A bit of unfortunate luck on our part, and quite good fortune for our rats that we found such a caring and understanding vet that is more than happy to take care of our little friends.

TeeTu – Rest in Peace