omgwtf!

Well, right after Lotus died, a friend of mine who is my Rat Guru told me about another huge rat rescue - there’s always a huge rat rescue somewhere - out in Ojai, California. A handicapped woman apparently took in some rats that had been dumped on her property and the situation quickly got well out of control, resulting in hundreds of rats running around everywhere.

One of my roommates recently bought a new car, and decided in a surprising and very generous gesture to loan me his old one, a Ford Aerostar van, until I was able to put together enough money to buy another used car of my own. The van needed a little work, but I agreed that a couple hundred dollars of work was worth it if it meant that I would have transportation in the meantime.

Well, my mechanic, whom I’ve known for a number of years now and has heretofore always been absolutely great, is having some kind of weird episode where shit he fixes keeps breaking. I had the van in twice for a total of 7 days out of 14 and the original major problem which I brought in to be fixed was never repaired. But he did put in a new starter, which cost me $300 and which my roommate could have done himself for under $100.

The problem is that the heater core is bad. I observed this from the get go after looking up the symptoms of the issue on the Intertron - but all that resulted when I put forth my own findings was that I was called a couple of names and routinely ignored. Turns out I was right, though - funny how that happens, isnt it? - and what’s more, my roommate also discovered, after poking around under the hood, that after the repair that was made to the van nobody bothered to reattach any of the hoses or parts they had to remove to replace the starter. So this whole thing has been a $400 cock-up and now I’m not only out the money, I still dont have a fucking ride.

We went to take the van back on Friday, and met my mechanic’s wife at the station. She looked fucking horrible and we were informed that my mechanic is out of the country until next Monday. We told her we’d be back. And so there was no ride out to Ojai for me - I had been planning on getting the van repaired, you see, and then driving out to the Ojai Humane Society where for some reason, though they describe themselves as a no-kill shelter, they have been killing the rats from this large rescue operation. As a result, all the foster homes in the area are urging people to pick from the Ojai HS group if they possibly can, in order to save those guys first.

No such luck for me. Best intentions, and all that.

So I went back to the forum where the rescue is being tracked and described my plight. Almost immediately, Debbie from Secondhand Rats contacted me and told me she’d have three boys from the Ojai rescue for me “tonight” (this was yesterday; Saturday). I waited on tenterhooks ALL DAY to hear from her and finally, late last night, I got an email from her, with that pic above attached to it.

Today she emailed me very briefly this morning to let me know that five of the boys, including my three, were given to a foster who will be getting them out to me on the rat train as soon as they possibly can. I havent heard from Debbie at all for the rest of the day, and she’s pretty adept at not answering any questions at all or indeed seemingly even reading the mail I’ve sent her (asking repeatedly for my phone number, which I have given her twice), but I’m trying to curb my extreme impatience because I know it’s all the more intense for my being really, really, really excited about these new boys coming!

For one thing, it’s been a hell of a hard, stressful, sad past six months or so, with all the illnesses and death in my little mischief. But more importantly, my one remaining rat, Bayberry, is all alone now, and he’s really missing his companions. I want to get those boys here as soon as I possibly can. At the very least it would be nice if someone would answer my damn questions.

But there are my new boys: I’ll be taking the gray boy (known as a “blue rat” in fancy rat terminology), hopefully the little black guy with the white nose, and the white boy with the black mask on. I am freaking out like a five year old on Christmas Eve right now, and each moment that goes by without an email or a phone call from these folks telling me theyre heading out my way is like an eternity. I can’t wait!

Well, in the meantime, back to work with me. You may all look upon the picture and worship the lunacy-inducing adorability that are my new baby boys.