This is Rune (roo neh), my sweetest little boy. He’s not so little anymore, but always sweet. He’s recently been accepted into the Hades & Hellquin club, and it’s not easy to get accepted by those two elders. I have four boys who are an odd mix of Rex and Hairless. Rune has been getting more hair as he ages, but he still doesn’t have full coverage. The others are Ingo, Inigo, and Balthasar. I got photos of Ingo and Inigo, but Balthasar is not a social guy, and he’s bloody huge and very fast, so no photos of him. Rune likes traveling on the top of my head.
© C. Ford.
He looks fluffy like a living plush toy.
They are a bit like Sharpei dogs, with wrinkly folds of flesh, that’s the hairless part. The Rex part makes what hair they have wavy, and curls their whiskers. :D
And Rune is a living plush toy!
Very cuuuute.
I had the exact same thought. Aw, he looks like a plushie come to life! I am pretty certain that some wild rats have excavated their nest under the patio paver floor of my garden shed. I have no idea HOW they get under there as it is surrounded by pavement and patio, but they manage to haul all sorts of things into the nests I find.
Tethys! So good to see you! How’s things? As for your patio rats, well, pavement of any kind is no bar to rats, and they don’t need a remarkably big space, but they won’t have their entrance and exit easily visible, that goes against all rat ethos. It could actually be a fairly long way off.
One of my current crew, Angel, is so tiny, it’s hard to credit. She can use a space just under an inch to happily squeeze herself somewhere or other.
Chigau, oh yes he is. He’s my sweetlittlebabyboy. Hades & Hellquin rule my bedside table, the top of it anyway. Under it is the lower Hades & Hellquin club, which does allow more members. The top is exclusive, and limited. Rune recently made the list of the accepted, but he often leaves it, and climbs down to curl up on my head.
Also, Rune is always first in line for food. He was very small when young, and remained quite thin for a good long while. He’s bulking out a bit now, but still, any hint of food, and there he is!
Yeah, he looks almost like he’s been felted -- woolly, not furred. :D Just adds to the charm!
Aww, fuzzy friend!
Things have been strange, thanks! I am looking forward to spring, heartbroken about the entire election and pipeline debacle, and trying to make sense of a world gone mad. Some rat therapy is always welcome. :D
I’m sure there are all sorts of old tunnels under the patio, its been there for at least 50 years. I never thought of rats as burrowing animals, but they don’t have any trouble pushing the sand from under the patio up on top of the paver blocks. They use plastic bags as liners to make their nest waterproof, and they like to collect the plastic rings that come off milk and juice containers for gnawing purposes.
Tethys #9
*boggles*
There is a PhD in there…
Chigau
:) ‘A human commensal species after 100 years of adaptation to urban environments and modern refuse materials.’ ?
I don’t know how you could prove they were using them for waterproofing or if they are using the bags because they stop the excavated sand from caving back in, but there were several old nests that had a layered construction of plastic shopping bags tamped into the sand with leaves and grass and shredded paper in the center. If there are more plastic bags sticking up out of the shed floor when it warms up I will have to take a peek.
The first picture is especially cute.