Hamster Ball Derby

The local Petco held a Hamster Ball Derby today. The flyer said, "Is your hamster built for speed? Bring your fast, furry friend and a ball and let the good times roll! Gerbils, mice, and rats may also participate." So Aurora and I loaded up Ratatouille and her big purple ball and headed over! There were about 15 participants, ranging from Guinea pigs and hamsters to gerbils. Ratatouille was the only rat there! People were very interested to see a rat in a ball, I guess that's not normal or something? They let the kids do a bunch of practice rounds on the tracks. I am not sure why kids brought guinea pigs, because none of them moved an INCH in those balls LOL!

So the guy in charge tried his best to pair everyone up fairly. The first round Ratatouille raced against a large hamster. She started out great and then she turned around and started going the wrong way! She lost the first round. But luckily, there was an uneven number of contestants and he allowed her to race the last contestant as well. She rolled down the track like a champ and won that one! For the second heat she raced the tiniest contestant, a little tiny hamster in a little tiny ball. Man that hamster could book it, he was a pro!! But it didn't matter, because once again Ratatouille turned around and went the wrong way. :-( That tiny hamster went on to 3 more races and was the winner of the derby, he was fast!

Poor Aurora has not learned how to be a good sport yet (one of the reasons we do these things). She was pretty sad and started crying and told me, "I'm not gonna clap for them because I didn't win!" LOL That gave us a good opportunity to talk about being a good sport and not always winning but having fun anyway...and how this was Ratatouille's first time and maybe needs more practice. She was fine after that but said she was "very disappointed in Ratatouille's performance, she should have known better than to go the wrong way."


Getting ready for the race!

Practice Round

Go go go!


Aurora visiting with "Blue Mews"

Not so happy about losing.

Pets

Aurora wanted me to make a post telling all about our animals, so here we go. We have 5 cats and a rat, and 2 baby lizards on the way. Yes, I said 5 cats! It sounds crazy but I guess they are like kids; after you have three a couple more doesn't make much difference, right? Anyway here they are:

Virus is the "old man" of the bunch. He is 10 years old and is one of the first cats Josh and I got when we moved in together. We found him at the animal shelter. He was playing in the litter box! As a kitten, he was all white except for his tail and ears. The spots came in as he grew up. We believe he is part siamese and part snowshoe. His name is Virus because when he was a kitten he got into EVERYTHING and he used to sit on top of our computer monitor. He's a mellow guy that has been the buddy to many kittens!

Neco is next in line. Neco is Japanese for "cat". He is about 6 years old. We got him as a kitten from Josh's grandmother's farm. One of her farm cats had a whole litter of kittens. We went to check them out and we found him, probably about 5 weeks old, with his left paw completely mangled. We took him to a local *hick* vet who looked at it and said "Well we can either cut it off, or let it fall off" @@ We decided to take him home because there is no way he would survive or find a home with a mangled paw. We bandaged him every day for 6 months. Eventually the two remaining toes dropped off and the stump healed over. It doesn't seem to bother him; he walks fine, but he does hold it up when he needs some extra sympathy!

We also got Smofo from the farm the following year. He is 5 and actually has the same mom as Neco! I caught him bare handed on the farm, he's a little slow :-) We call him Smofo because when he was a kitten he had a lot of gas and Smelled like a MoFo!

This is Ninja. I got him for my birthday last year, so he's a year old. I had a siamese growing up, who passed away shortly before Josh and I moved in together. I've always wanted another one, and I knew it would be a good cat with the kids (because they act like dogs) so we found a local breeder and got him. I wanted an Asian sounding name, and Ninja is very appropriate because he is sneaky and can slide into a room (or closet) without you noticing! He also talks a lot and will jump into your arms.

This is our newest addition. We call him Cricket. He walked into Josh's work last week and came right up to him. I think he is about 4 months old. We orginally tried to get him a home at Josh's parents' house, because they have always loved Neco and they recently lost a cat of their own. We thought it was meant to be! But they don't want him. By that point, he had already settled in at our house and he and Ninja are best buddies now. He burns Ninja's energy and keeps him out of trouble! He is very laid back; Alex messes with him and he just lays there and doesn't care.

This is Aurora's Fancy rat. Her name is Ratatoullie. She orignally had hermit crabs that my mom had gotten them for Christmas, but was bored with them so we found them a home and I told her she could pick something more interactive. She settled on a rat. I had misgivings, but rats are actually really cool pets! She does not bite and she loves to hang out with the kids or on your shoulder, and she is very smart!

In this picture, Aurora is holding a blue-tongued Skink. Josh's grandmother has a pair of them. They just had babies and she has insisted on sending 2 of them for Aurora and Alex. They are very laid back and as you can see, get pretty big. She tells me they eat dog food and crickets! Hopefully they won't eat our Cricket! We are preparing for their arrival sometime in the next week or so.

Pretty soon we will be charging a zoo admission to enter our house!!