Morticia knows no fear!
Towards the end of January I had a phone call from the chairman of our local rat club, the Midlands Rat Club, to say he’d been contacted by the BBC. They were interested in filming my 12 year old son, Joe, with our pet rats for a ‘Creature Feature’ on Children’s BBC’s Xchange programme. After checking with Joe we agreed that we would like to participate. (Actually, he was bouncing off the walls.) I was slightly apprehensive as to how we would be portrayed but I knew that children’s TV tends to show rats in a more sympathetic light than some other programming. The rest of the club committee agreed that this would bring an excellent opportunity for positive PR for the club, although some (possibly most) were nervous at the thought of being filmed.
The plan was that the film crew would follow us to the rat show taking place today, with Joe telling the viewers about his rats and about entering them in the show. They then asked if they would be able to begin the piece at our home to introduce our rats and show how they are kept. This sent me into a minor flurry of house tidying. We’re a cluttersome household at the best of times.
The club members who are online were informed about the filming, and asked to bring along as many children as they had handy. Most were positive about the idea, especially as the feature was only to be four minutes long so would not impinge on the show too much. Or so we thought.
As I usually host a stand selling rat related gifts at the shows, I found myself busy enough with my preparations to keep any nerves at bay during the week preceding the show. Joe seemed completely blasé about the idea of talking to the camera, and was looking forward to the day.
This morning finally arrived and I was up at six, packing our van with my stand stock and checking on all of the rats. The three man film crew arrived just before nine, planning to film for an hour before we set off. The whole feature was planned and scripted, although with room for us to add our own input to it.
After an introduction from Joe, which also featured me and my daughters Kim and Ginnie holding some of our rats, he was guided through a commentary and our rats were all introduced to the camera. Joe and Kim gave them some facts about pet rats and then they filmed Joe around the house with the rats, in the kitchen, watching TV and doing his homework.
We left the house an hour and a half late. Kim had planned to stay at home, as we only have three seats in the van, but the crew offered to take her along with them so that she could continue to contribute. Thankfully the show was in Kettering, only a short hop from our home in Rugby, so we arrived before the judging began and in time to enter our rats. We were greeted with “Where were you?” and “We thought you weren’t coming” from the members who are used to us being there from the beginning of the show. The film crew gave their apologies for holding us up, and we began to settle in for the day.
While I was setting up my stand Joe and his sisters booked our rats in and got them tabled for judging. Joe was filmed showing the viewers around the show, the pet and the varieties competitions. The film crew spent a full day talking to both children and adults, filming the judging, the rat agility competition and finally the presentation at the end. All for a four minute feature! We came through for them, with Kim, Ginnie and Joe each winning a rosette for their rats.
We found the film crew friendly and eager to make the day as easy for us as possible. It was a really positive once-in-a-lifetime experience for Joe. The feature was shown two weeks later on the CBBC channel, where it attracted a great deal of interest from our fellow rat lovers.
The new girlies have been meeting the older girls for the past two weeks. Yesterday they spent the whole morning on the table together with barely a squeak. "This is it!" I thought. So I cleaned out the big cage, added their new extension, rearranged everything and put the ramp up so they could go in.
They spent the afternoon snuggling up together, so I was beginning to feel quite smug. Then Wren, the alpha, and Shorty, pretender to the throne, started throwing their weight around. I watched for a while, but the little ones were getting distressed so I pulled Wren and Shorty out and put them in the empty babies' cage.
I went out in the evening to take Ginnie to youth club, and Mark reported that there'd been some squeaking while I was out. I watched them for a while. Raven and Finch had started in, with Raven biting Morticia and drawing blood. So... they went in the baby cage too.
So now all I seem to have achieved is a cage swap, with Dove, Lark and the little ones in the big cage and the other four in the baby cage.
I can't believe them. Half an hour yesterday and not a peep. An hour on the table this morning and no trouble. I had a big ratty hug of five girls at one stage. I think I'll give them a week of daily playtimes, then try the cage again.
I plonked the climbing frame on the table this morning after the girls had already been out for 10 minutes, and everyone had to get on it!
Then of course they all needed a cuddle at the same time
We lost Stitch today, at just 14 months old. A complete surprise. He's managed so well these past few months first with his back legs weakening, then a nasty abscess. He's always been so bright and full of life.
We noticed this afternoon that he was weeing blood, quite a lot of it, so we took him up to the emergency clinic at 4 o'clock. It seems he had a tumour in his bladder, which the vet didn't think would respond well to an op and which would eventually block it completely, so we have very sadly let him go.
I feel as if I'm in shock at the moment, it was just so sudden.
I gave the girls some water to play in this evening just to see what they'd do and they immediately started looking for the peas, so of course I had to put some in. The water was a little deep, but they coped.
We got a really good picture of Button's centre parting. He grooms himself so that his hair parts down the middle of his head which makes it very easy to tell him apart from his brother.
Annette
Last modified: Tuesday, 08-Mar-2005 20:03:10 GMT
