The last time i tried posting this, my computer shut down in the middle.
So. let's try again! Last week my grandma took me, my brother and my cousin to an african violet show. We go someplace with her every weekend. First of all, let me say i had no idea African Violets were so diverse! It was more impressive than i expected.
Second of all, at the show they were selling african violets, and my grandma bought me one.
(only two dollars. for all the violets, no matter the size.) On the ride home she lost five leaves.
then one when we got back. and one just the other day. I bought some african violet fertilizer the other day, to see if that would help. Anyway, she's probably the first flowering plant i've kept, if you don't count the petunias in my window-box. Don't get me wrong, i actually already had an african violet, it's just that i can't seem to get her to flower. she's really pretty, though. I named her Marietta and painted her pot myself. But about the new violet.
I can't think of a name for her. I mean, nothing i think of can really do her justice, you know?
her flowers are beautiful. So i've been calling her "Magenta". Not necessarily because her flowers are magenta, but because me and my grandma got into a conversation about "Blue's clues" on the way home, and it stuck in my head for some reason. Do you think i can't seem to name her because she's going to die? i mean, the last time i couldn't name a plant she died.
Well, i'll do my best to help her out. Just in case, though, i took some of the leaves that fell off and stuck them in jars of water. I'm thinking of doing the same with Marietta, too. Maybe if i start fresh with a new plant, then i can see what her flowers would look like.
Well, enough about violets. I'd like to talk to you about rats.
I've not sure if i've written about them yet, but we got two rats about a week
before we got Max. They're both boys, hooded rats, named Arthur and Rex.
the only difference is that Arthur has a smooth coat, and Rex has a... well, he has a rex coat, hence the name. basically he always looks like he just rolled out of bed. :-P
So i'm here to sum up everything i haven't said about the rats in the past few months.
When we got them, they were really shy, especially Arthur. We were expecting this.
On the website of the rat-rescue we got them from, Arthur was described as being shy, and Rex as "cuddly". we didn't play with them the first day, to get them used to their surroundings.
the next day we started taking them out of the cage. Those first few days they tensed when they were picked up, but that stopped after about a week. After a month or two, some drastic personality differences started to make themselves obvious.
Arthur, for one, no longer seemed shy. It was obvious now that despite being cautious in the beginning, this kid was a real trooper. First of all, he climbs on the ceiling. when he's in his cage, he can actually hang upside down, from the ceiling, and move forward.
Second of all, whenever the door is open, he just zooms right toward it. I think he's looking for a way out. Like, my perspective of him has shifted in a 180, from "scared little rat who thinks we're monsters" to "trained combat official who has been captured, and now has an escape plan"
he's really impressive. Rex on the other hand, hasn't changed quite so much.
Originally we thought of him as the adventurous one. Now i realize it only seemed so in contrast to Arthur, who was probably staying in the cage for the sole purpose of sizing us up.
Nowadays, Rex is really just what he was originally described as: a cuddlebun. He loves cuddling, and licking. He likes to explore too, but he can only dream of visiting places Arthur's been. He also seems to be a bit naive. it feels like Arthur is watching out for him, as an older brother would. the other day, i had let the rats out to play when i noticed Arthur trying to get some noodles out of the box of noodles we keep on top of the cage. so i placed the box on top of another box that was near the wall, and kept reading. Even as i read, i could still hear him making futile attempts to get the box down. five minutes later, i look over to see Rex pulling the bottom box out from under the noodle box, as Arthur pulls on the corner of the noodle box with his teeth. About 30 seconds later, the box came tumbling down. I didn't want them to overeat, but i gave them a few noodles because they were so smart i didn't want it to go unrewarded.
soo... yeah. in the future i'll try to post about big events like this when they actually happen.
