Squeaky clean?

This evening, only my sister and I volunteered to have a shower. Our adopted sister was a bit slow off the mark - as per usual.

To be fair, we hadn't known what we were offering ourselves up for; when Helena called us, we just ran to her.

Getting wet was fun, we were not so keen on the noisy, warm wind that followed. We prefer drying off with a towel.

I can't be held responsible....

Helena forgot about having placed me on her bed. 

I therefore had a chance (about 5 hrs) to make some bedding out of her bedding (it shredded beautifully) and to sleep.

Do we look like we care?

£74.75... to replace the power cable we chewed...

You could say that our adopted sister has settled in. Being younger she is more playful and therefore an irritation. I tire of having my tail pounced on and feel the need to make her aware of this fact.

It took a week before my sister accepted her and now they are virtually inseparable.

She has a strange relationship with Helena; happy to climb all over her, but doesn't like being touched. Quite odd.

Nothing much to report. We found a paper ball in our room and, after spending some time working our way around the room in it, we integrated it into our home, over a period of about two days, and then used it to make bedding.

Helena has adapted the door to our room to give it that ...cage effect.

Hmmm

I suspect that Helena's confused; she's supplied us with a length of electrical cabling and a length of fabric, neither of which we have touched. She thought that, because we've recently gnawed through the cables of her T.V. and telephone and chomped through her curtains, that our enthusiasm relates to cables and fabrics per se, but it doesn't, it's about happening across them - not being supplied them.
The excitement of 'finding' triggers the desire to 'gnaw'.

And then there were three....

Bars

The larger container we now occupy boasts similar features to those we enjoyed previously.

Weekend away

My sister and I returned to the house with the red sofa. On this occasion we decided to tailor it to our liking.

Our host was gracious.

Giving eachother some space

Weary of repairing electrical cables and protective of newly acquired soft furnishings; Helena banished us from the living room and we were compensated with long tubes in which to exercise our legs along with the occasional runaround on the landing. However, we were never far from wires just begging to be severed and Helena decided to put an end to our runarounds all together and to keep us contained in a huge wire cage.

Only then did it dawn on her; we hadn't been craving for space in which to run around, but for a space in her life.

So now we have our very own room, with our very own rocking chair, and Helena can now enter our space, rather than we hers and she doesn't need to worry about our dental ventures on her living quarters.

We like this arrangement.

Time to reach an understanding....

Helena prefers the company of my sister. And my sister hers.

I'm a lot more independent. I like to explore. I'm more of a challenge to 'control'.

I'm the 'Houdini' of the rat world; the board and wooden door could not keep me out of my 'playground'. When Helena entered the living room yesterday, and was obstructed by the fallen skis and affronted by the soil on the carpet, her approach to my capture was determined and she demonstrated no consideration to my needs.

This morning, for the first time, she took me outside. She sat me on her lap while she drank her coffee. I enjoyed that.

The smell of the great outdoors was inspiring to me and I was ready to explore it. But no, that marked the time for us to return indoors. Ho hum.

Better than nothing I guess. At least she's giving me SOME one to one attention. That's some improvement.

A lot has happened since...

...our cardboard tube was removed; we now have a plastic tube.

Last week we made a long and noisy journey with Helena. At the end of it we had the opportunity to experience new furniture and be in a contained area upon which we could climb.

Back home, my sister has been thorough in her exploration of the kitchen; she caused quite a fuss on Friday evening when it became clear who had been responsible for digging up the plants on the kitchen still and for causing packets of rubber washing-up gloves to go missing.

As a result, the staircase has now been cordoned off, as well as some sections of our landing - something to do with leaked bathroom cleaning products....

Gone

Helena has taken away our cardboard tube.

The Truth

I genuinely believed that Helena knew what I was doing underneath her duvet and that she approved of it. Why would I have continued if I had known otherwise?

On returning home to find her security alarm going off, I suspect Helena knew that we had escaped. Again.

I ran to greet her, but she didn't make much of a fuss over me and placed me in the high security mobile home immediately after picking me up.

She entered the living room to look for my sister. What she found was a severed telephone cable. Oops!

A short time later my sister was 'captured' while scaling the outside of our 'Rathause', trying to get in again.

I suspect we may not have our evening run around.

Helena is very, very quick at rejoining wires. I feel a game coming on....

???

Helena used the phone till late last night. My sister and I were in our high security, mobile home, where we spent the night.

This morning Helena replaced the phone on its cradle. She then installed additional security systems to our 'Rathause', before returning my sister and I to it.

It was then that Helena noticed that the phone was dead. The cable had been severed. But how?????

WANTED

Helena was seriously slow in working out how my sister and I had escaped from our 'Rathaus'.

The first time she found us A.W.O.L., she returned us without noticing our newly made exit.

It wasn't until she found us on the loose, a second time, that she noted the window.

I wonder whether she now realises what the noise, that has woken her the past two mornings, was due to.

We are presently residing in our high-security travel home.

The sofa has again become occupied by someone who isn't Helena. However, I do know this person. It's Paul.


We enjoyed being with each other and sat together for some time.

Company

The house has become noisy.

The person sitting on Helena's sofa is not Helena. Neither of them are.

...and...

I love cutting wires. This keeps Helena busy too as she likes to join them together again.

There are some wires which, when I cut them, Helena stops speaking. Its an interesting affect.

Helena?

I, on the other hand, have little time for Helena, or my sister for that matter. I'm too busy; checking out desk tops and drawers, sitting behind curtains, busying myself in the tube here. Well, it needs shredding and a proper bed needs to be made. Beds need to be made everywhere from whatever is available; the curtains, boxes, cushions. I've torn open a bag of wood chip and created a very comfortable bed at the back of the 'Rathaus'. I also like to dig the soil in the plant pot and spread it everywhere - give the place an earthiness. There's very little time for socialising and 'hanging out', but I do make a point of keeping a check on Helena and on my sister and I visit them every so often.

Helena

I love to be with Helena. When she sits down on the floor I climb all over her. She holds me up high and talks to me. She puts me on the floor and I follow her around. She places me in the 'Rathause' and I run out to her. We sit on the sofa together; I eat or wash and she types. Sometimes I chew her clothes, her cushions, her laptop. In the morning she places me on her bed and I reach out to her. She picks me up and puts me down. Up and down. I get cuddled. I run across her shoulders, I try to run around her neck, but she always pulls me away.

Readjusting

Well we've settled back into being back home again, though it has taken us a few days to acclimatise ourselves to the change of smells, space and sounds.

Our stay at Claudia and Paul's was most agreeable, we were allowed to run around all over the place and Paul made for a very engaging subject to interact with. It's very quiet here by comparison.

I'm sitting on the sofa at the moment, next to Helena. I'm just having a quick wash.

My sister is in the desk drawer again. There's a lot of rattling going on, can't imagine what she's up to. She's twice 'abducted' our wooden replicas from the desk top, but Helena's retrieved them each time. I wonder whether my sister's brooding. Think I'll just curl up and take a nap. It's lovely and snug here.

Ah, it appears some cables have been severed and a box has been shredded. Helena doesn't appear too put out.

Found out

I thought it would be fun to take the wooden rat to join my other acquisitions in the drawer of the desk.

98, 99, 100

I was sure Helena wouldn't find me here, hmm.

Found out

My early morning excursion was cut short when Helena found me in the drawer of her desk.

I think she was surprised. Especially as she had found me with an iced ginger biscuit, one which had previously resided in another part of the house.

On previous mornings I'd returned to my bed before she'd risen and therefore she'd been none the wiser as to my nocturnal activities.

Okay, so she may have noticed that some of her ornaments had been knocked over.

We love it.

Encouraged by or frequent usage of her plastic bottle design, Helena has added a very, very long cardboard tube to it.

Interesting...

Inspired...

...by the designs of our cousin, Helena has created for us a domestic version of a 'tunnel'.

Rumour has it....

.....that a distant cousin of ours has set up home in a bag of compost outside, in the back yard.
The bag of compost, its purchase being the purpose of Helena's trip to the garden centre, which also resulted in our unplanned 'adoption', was found perfectly severed around its circumference and mounds of its contents deposited on the nearby upturned, empty plant pots.

It's quite an elaborate affair and demonstrates that our cousin is indeed a cultured creature.

This is not Romula and Rema

......and we were taken to the house of Joyce and Ray.

Joyce was quick to place a very large book over us. A curious custom.

Ray gave Helena wooden and leather replicas of Romula and myself, I suspect so that she does not miss us during our separation.

Things here look good....we're close to the radiator and Joyce and Ray like handling us...I think we'll like it here.

When Helena came home she packed our belongings in a bag and then transferred us to our holiday home.....

Oh sister! Where am I?

With a shake of the duvet I suddenly found myself spreadeagled on the floor. A shocked Helena reached out to pick me up, but shaken by what had just happened, instinct had me shoot under the bed. No amount of coaxing was going to bring me out - I needed to collect myself.

So I was left alone.

For something to do, I worked my way through an electrical cable, which ran alongside the top end of the bed. Then I created an entry through the bed's hessian base, and accessed the draws in the divan of the bed.

It was a whole new world.

Some hours later, when Helena began looking for me, she tipped the bed this way and that. It made me feel quite disorientated and that is how she found me, dazed and confused.

I was returned home to my sister and shared with her tales of my adventure. I think it beat her time behind the chest of drawers.

Home Again

After much hunting in corners, behind curtains and under furniture, my gone-walk about sister was spotted peeking out from behind a chest of drawers. Helena was quick to return her to our house and securely lock the doors.

This morning we are gamboling on Helena 's bed while she's having breakfast and writing. She's shared with us some muffin and cheese and a clementine.

Oh sister, where art thou?

Helena left our house door open last night, so that we had the freedom to run around the landing.

Knowing my sister's passion for electrical cables (the telephone was cut off mid-conversation last week), Helena sectioned off her route into the living room - a cable hub.

But I have to hand it to her, no door or make shift barricade would stop her accessing them.

She managed to push open the door and is in there, somewhere, we think.

After much hunting - she's nowhere to be found. The only sign of her is a knocked over, porcelain cup, located on the desk - I'm impressed with the heights to which she has scaled.

I have remained in the house, on the first floor. I feel comfortable here. But I do miss my sister.

Our New Home!

This is more like it; four rooms, a loft space, bay windows, a porch. Not to mention the wooden staircase and marbled vinyl flooring. We like it.

And we're next to the bookcase, so when we're in need of some extra bedding, we've got a healthy supply of paper we can shred - once we've negotiated the mesh on the windows that is. I don't expect cutting through the ties, which are holding them on, will pose much of a problem.

Off to dine in the dining room. See you later.


Romula and Rema

Dolls House. Rat House?

This afternoon we watched Helena scrubbing away at a dolls house, situated out on the landing. The air is now filled with a pungent citrus smell. Mmmm.

Hmm, we wonder what that is about.



Romula and Rema

A Cousin Drops In

Yesterday we accompanied Helena out into the back lane to collect, what I suspect should have been, an emptied bin. It appears that no sooner had it been emptied, someone had come along and placed their rubbish in it.

I have since learnt that this act is called ‘fly-tipping’, which seems an odd term as, after pulling out the offending rubbish sacks, accompanied by noises of agitation, Helena went on to emanate a mild distress call, and tipped the bin on its side to allow, can you believe it, a distant cousin of ours to scamper out.

Would ‘rat-tipping’ not be more a more appropriate a term?

The poor soul was terrified and scurried off into a neighbouring backyard, so we didn’t have an opportunity to discuss our family links. Who knows, he may return.

Many phone calls followed this event – so it must have be an important one.


Romula and Rema

Unfinished Business

On Tuesday morning we listened to Fergal Keane talking to Chinese businessman, Jimmy Lai, on Radio 4. Helena switched the radio off before she left the house, which was unfortunate, as the programme had not yet ended.

We could really do with having our own radio.

Romula and Rema
(Don't ask which of us is which.)

High Energy

We'rE BOUNCING All OVER the place this evening - this ENeRY is AMAzIng - what TO DO with it? Eh?

This sofa is too small an area for us to exercise on, but neither of us feels quite ready yet to leave it. Anyway, Helena's sitting on the Sofa and we like running up and down her. If she were sitting on the floor maybe we would join her, but she's not - so we'll stay here. Hmm.

My teeth - I want to chew something. What to chew? What to chew? What to chew? What to chew?

I could open up that blanket hole a bit more. Or the cushion. The throw maybe? The Mac keyboards?

Helena's just found a split bit of plastic on it, but that wasn't me. I did try, but not hard enough to do that. No, sorry, can't take the credit on this occasion.

Exercise

This morning Helena invited us to run around on her bed. While she lay reading, we had great fun negotiating the undulating duvets.

This evening we're on the sofa climbing all over the Helena and nibbling at her t-shirt and trousers. We're also forcing our way behind the cushions and through the folded blanket. Backwards and forward, up and down. This is the life.


Romula and Rema

There were never such devoted sisters,
Never had to have a chaperone, No sir,
I'm here to keep my eye on her
Caring, sharing
Every little thing that we are wearing
When a certain young buck arrived from Rome
She wore the pearls, and I stayed home







Well I'll be .....
Archangel Gabriel (Deceased)
In memory of the other two boys

We like....

our new house, the sofa, the cushions, the throw, the rice, the clementine and the black seedless grapes and we love playing with Helena and pulling at the knot at the end of the cord on her sweat pants. We also like chasing each other round and round and jumping on and off the box in our house.

Sweetcorn! Just found it - we like it.