Don't Blink

Last night the rats and I inadvertently had a scary experience. I needed to clean their cage, so I did the usual routine: kicked the dogs and cats out of the bedroom and put the rats on the bed. Normally they run around and play while I deal with their cage.

However, instead of playing last night, or even running to the trunk at the foot of the bed, where there is always piled up laundry in which to burrow, they ran to the head of the bed, where they promptly climbed behind the pillows. Every once in a while I'd glance over and just see their tiny faces sticking out, eyes wide and staring.

I assumed they were just not in the mood to play and kept cleaning their cage.

Several minutes later, I heard a noise and turned around, expecting to see the rats climbing on the bed frame or doing something else that was noisy. Instead I was shocked to see our dog Annie (first introduced in bentorats.blogspot.com/2011/03/rest-of-crew-pt-1.html) sitting in the corner of the room on her bed. Her bed which is framed on one side by the bed itself and on another side by the trunk at the foot of the bed. The trunk where the rats play.

Annie is a huge dog. I am 5'6" and if she sits next to me on the couch, she is taller than me. She also possesses a magnificent tongue, which is probably bigger than either Sushi or Saké.

Annie the Weeping Angel.

For the Doctor Who fans, we call Annie our weeping angel, due to her uncanny ability to show up places without our realization. She's huge and lumbering, yet she can move silently and surprise you when you least expect it. Thus it isn't too surprising that I managed to kick our other two dogs plus one of our cats out of the bedroom without even noticing that giant Annie was also in the room.

I may not have noticed her, but Sushi and Saké certainly did.

Once I realized Annie was there, I immediately took her out of the room. She wasn't paying any attention to the rats and probably wouldn't have bothered them anyway, but obviously that wasn't an option I was going to entertain.

Within moments of Annie's exit, Saké was back to normal, exploring and playing on the bed as usual. Sushi was not quite as comfortable. She hunkered down under a pillow, turned to the wall, and began grooming furiously. Dave sat on the bed with her for about ten minutes and she didn't relax a bit. We put her back in her cage, deciding she'd calm down once she was back in her own safe environment. She climbed immediately in the nest and after a while finally came out and was her usual self.

So, the lesson here: perhaps instead of the Bento Box we should have built the girls a Tardis. They would be no match for the weeping angels.