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More poor little Peppi... though he's not really lil. for a rat he's really quite fat and because he's such a pudgy buns he's picked a wuffle. An adorable rodent sneeze which usually bodes bad things, so I took him off the the vet along with our dog, who went into the river at her usual headlong pace and came out limping.
normally if I gotta cart them off the the vet I take them in a small travel cage... which I'm currently unsure of the whereabouts of the bottem of. So, this time around he went on my shoulder... or rather burrowed under the collar and shoulder of my jacket.
The visit was quite stressful for him and the day was really warm. Rats have a tendency to pee and poo when stressed and 2/3 ds of the way home that's what he did... but he's not a shoulder rat. Normally when they're out for exercise they get to run around a single room... not get carted about on my shoulder. He really doesn't know what to do and he was so exhausted that he soiled himself and my shoulder really badly. I was unimpressed. Haveing a big stinking chunk of poo sitting on my arm and no way to clean it and flys buzzing about is NOT my idea of fun.
Mum was driving and she stopped at a toilet. I took him and myself in and cleaned us up as best i could with damp tiolet paper and paper towels but it was pitiful. He'd made quite a mess of himself and normally rats are very fastidious beasts. They don't LIKE being dirty and are forever grooming themselves... well, pet rats at least, but he was to tired to even make and effort and tho he squwarked with complainted when i cleaned him up he was still to exhaused to protest much.
Cleaning up my arm and the poo from car was pretty horrific too.
Next time if I can't find the cage bottem, I think I'll just take him in a shoe box or something. This was beyond a joke.