October 2003

MRC Show (4th Oct)

We went off to the Midlands Rat Club show today, taking all seven of the boys from the big cage and Gandalf too. We popped him in one of the two carriers with the others (taking a spare show tank in case he needed to be separated later). He got along fine with the others apart from Zorro, who fluffed up a little. After spending the whole day either in the carrier or being a shoulder rat, he came home and spent the night with Henry for company. The next day we cleaned out the cage and put them all in there, and after a couple of chases with Zorro there was no trouble at all.

The show was very enjoyable. Storm did well in the pets section, taking first adult owned buck, second in the adult owned pet challenge, and third in the supreme pet challenge. My son was a little put out as we had agreed that he would take over care of Storm on Friday, so he had become a junior owned pet since I put the entries in.

I took some play dough along for a model competition, which went very well indeed. I gave my copper painted model rat as an extra prize. I also took an order for another ratty, and had the promise of one more.

Little to say (17th Oct)

All is quiet. Gandalf has settled very well into the big cage and is now one of the gang. I'm a little worried about Fox because he is getting bitten, but I haven't seen it happen so don't know who's doing it. He seems quite content in there, and I don't want to put him in with Pirate and Jasper because Pirate has bullied him before. I'm treating for mites just in case, but I'm 99 percent certain he has rat bites.

Annette