If you wonder why I'm not blogging, arranging playdates for my children, or even doing the most minimal housework, it's because I'm obsessing about the surviving rats recovered from the Petaluma rat hoarding horror. There's an email list for people trying to help the rats, the petalumarats yahoo group, and I'm posting and reading there or exchanging email with rat activists. I've also been doing a lot of driving rats hither and yon, with more driving today and tomorrow.
This afternoon I'm driving up to Petaluma, after leaving my three year-old with my very patient friend Joyce (whom I now owe a lot of babysitting). It's wonderful for Lucy to get to spend an afternoon with her friends Joyce and "The Baby Violet", as Lucy always calls her, rather than spend another day in the car driving rats around. I'm going to pick up three nursing mother rats with their litters of babies, and then I'll drive them out to Vacaville to rendezvous with a famed rat fosterer, who has the magical superpower of being able to find homes for whole litters of baby rats. Then I'll drive back to the city, undoubtedly getting caught in rush hour traffic, and missing my six year-old's gymnastic camp show.
I got a guilt trip from the old husband yesterday about missing the show. "I feel that for a stay at home mother, I'm missing a lot of Iris's special moments," I said. Instead of reassuring me, he said, in a judgmental voice, "Do you have to go in the afternoon so you miss the show?"
"But the pound doesn't open until noon, so I can't go there in the morning. And the person I'm meeting isn't free to leave until after one, so she can't meet me before 2:30."
"Can't you do it another day?"
"I can't do it tomorrow, because I'm picking up the rats who got neutered in Pacifica. And the pound's closed on Monday, and we can't do it Tuesday, so it's either tomorrow or Wednesday. And the rats could get euthanized before then." That last remark was actually unjustified, as now the pound knows it has someone who's taking those specific rats off their hands, they are unlikely to kill them, but Anton failed to call me on it. He just gave me a cool, disappointed look. Of course, he was pissy because we bought a new cage for our adopted rats and a rat carrier as well. "Anton thinks the carrier is a waste of money," artlessly tattled Iris.
The Petaluma pound will soon have about 20 rats left which need homes. Please spread the word. I will personally lavishly reward anyone who adopts some.
2 comments:
No thanks on the rats -- we have enough in D.C. However, I'm glad I discovered your blog. You are a unique individual.
Thank you, freewheel! That's either very kind or very tactful, and either one is okay by me.
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