Ringo's Rat Tales: 2011

For Christina

The Rat Whisperer

Once upon a time, there was a lovely young girl named Christina. She had a unique talent - she could talk to rats!!! One day, Christina heard a very sad tale about 2 rats, Peter and Edmund, who lived in the forest. As you may already know, rats are very misunderstood and unappreciated animals. Peter and Edmund were very lonely. The other forest creatures often said mean things and refused to play with them.

Christina had a HUGE heart. After hearing about Peter and Edmund, she immediately decided to search for them. She wanted to help all the creatures of the forest understand just how special rats really were!

DAY #1: Because Peter and Edmund assumed everyone disliked them, it took awhile before they let Christina get close, but she eventually made contact:

DAY #2: Peter and Edmund began to feel safe in Christina's presence. They even took a nap with her:

DAY #3: She read them her favorite book: The Great Ratsby. The other animals became very curious about Christina. They wondered why she'd spend so much time with those yucky rats! Soon, they'd all realize just how wonderful Peter and Edmund really were!

DAY #4: Christina finally helped the forest animals see how amazing Peter and Edmund were. Edmund was so happy that he sang a song about how much he loved Christina and how she had made him the happiest rat in the whole world!

DAY #5: Christina couldn't wait to introduce Peter and Edmund to her big sister, Maggie. Maggie loved rats, too! A lifelong friendship was born, and now Maggie and Christina visit Peter and Edmund every single week!

Here are a couple cute pictures of the REAL Maggie and Christina! Man, they are some cute kids!

P.S: Christina, you have one of the best doctors in the world, and he will take great care of you! You've probably noticed that he's a pretty funny guy. But did you know that he used to be a wrestler? It's true!! Click HERE for a few giggles...

#31 - Bunny Rabbit

And, now for the end of our Halloween countdown....

31st Day of Halloween: Bunny Rabbit

#30 - Firefighter

30th Day of Halloween: Firefighter

#29 - Star Wars

29th Day of Halloween: Star Wars

Yoda:

Chewbacca:

R2D2:

Storm Trooper:

Darth Vader:

Princess Leia (and Luke Skywalker):

Han Solo:
* This photo was just before he was frozen in Carbonite. There are serious consequences for rebelling against the Galactic Empire!!

#28 - Reindeer

28th Day of Halloween:Reindeer

#27 - Rambo

27th Day of Halloween: Rambo

#26 - Trick or Treat

26th Day of Halloween: Trick or Treat

#25 - Fonzie

25th Day of Halloween: Fonzie

We're having some special guests on our blog for the Halloween countdown! There are lots of creative people with some very compliant pets out in the world. I found this fabulously creative and hilarious pet owner over at Flickr. Ringo and I were looking at her photostream, and absolutely could NOT pull ourselves away from the computer. She gave me permission to share them, via the blog. I love people like her...we all need something to make us giggle, especially in a world that has become way tooooo serious! There are plenty of troubles to be had, but we have to find the small things that make us smile! Amen?

Click here to see more of her work:

#24 - Mondays for Melanie

24th Day of Halloween: Mondays for Melanie

Life has been crazy for our family these past few months, and I haven't done a good job keeping up with my "Mondays for Melanie" segment. I hope to get back to it ASAP. This wonderful family continues to be in my thoughts on an almost daily basis, so I wanted to do a quick post to highlight their desire to create awareness about their daughter's rare disease.

Every member of this family, and many folks from their community have tenaciously and lovingly advocated for Melanie. Our family originally connected with the Glatzmayers' through our common love for pet rats, and we want to help them raise awareness about a very rare disease called CdLS.

Melanie's pet rat has been a very important part of their journey. In fact, her brother wrote this precious book called, Melanie & Tommy have 2 Pet Rats & 1 Syndrome. It's always wonderful to meet others who know that these little critters are fascinating, intelligent, affectionate and playful pets. We also know how sad it can be to lose a furry friend. So, for this post, I thought I'd include a couple photos from Melanie's blog. The first photo captures their halloween playfulness. The second captures a very heart-warming farewell ceremony after Melanie's pet rat (Cinderella) passed away.

Melanie, we're so sorry you lost such a sweet friend!

If you don't know about the family we've been following, please click here. You'll see a HILARIOUS video about their international rat spies. You'll also see links to their blog & website, where you can learn more about this special family!

#23 - Floppy Tongue Joy

23rd Day of Halloween: Floppy Tongue Joy

Ok, I've been DYING to introduce the world to a special dachshund, named Reuben. Reuben is quite a fascinating little (um...I mean BIG and MAJESTIC) dog. I know, I know...what is a dog doing on this rat blog? Well, we love all kinds of animals and are excited to have special visitors from time to time. Plus, Reuben dressed up for Halloween!

I can't begin to describe the joy that Reuben brings to my life, and the lives of many others. My friend, Jamie, chose the perfect name for their blog: Floppy Tongue Joy. Reuben is a dog with a very long, very floppy tongue. But what makes it even more joyous is that Reuben's tongue is always hanging out of his mouth, and practically dragging the ground. He simply cannot contain his glorious tongue because he has almost no teeth to hold it in.

Reuben is a brilliantly witty dog, and he does a fabulous job articulating his thoughts about the world around him. He knows how to use a typewriter and he even set up his very own blog! Now, that's a smart dog! Let me introduce you to Reuben with these teaser pics. Then, go take a look at his blog and say "hi".

Meet my floppy-tongued friend, Reuben:

Reuben's Halloween Costumes:

The Tin Man...

A Gyspy...

A Gangsta, with some serious bling...

#22 - Capt. Jack Sparrow

22nd Day of Halloween: Captain Jack Sparrow

(Read below for some fun facts about this little pirate!)

Ringo certainly isn't a rat (he's as sneaky as one, though). Rat or not, he deserves his own special post based on this awesome Halloween costume. I also have to take a moment to brag about my amazing boy.

1) Ringo's an amazing little artist, just like his daddy. Seriously, he's quite talented. I've started scanning his best work and I plan to start his own little art blog.

2) Ringo's very smart. He understands mechanical and engineering basics that many older children (even adults) might not grasp. He made an elaborate leprechaun trap with a pulley system on St. Patrick's Day. He was very sad to learn that he didn't catch a little green guy the next morning (although the leprechaun left him a note, with some chocolate gold coins!).

3) Ringo's unusually thoughtful. When he's given a candy bar or something very tasty, he never eats the last bite until he asks me if I want some of it. Seriously? Who does that? I don't do that! My yummy treats are mine...ALL MINE!

4) Ringo's a trusting little soul. Perhaps too trusting. I probably need to be saving for years of therapy, instead of college. He use to have crippling anxiety and fear surrounding certain things like fires, tornadoes, etc... Despite my best attempts, I couldn't seem to find the right words to help. I assured him everything would be ok in the event of a fire or some other dangerous weather event. We made a home safety plan and even practiced it several times. His fears eventually began to subside, but not until after he met Paul. Who's Paul? Oh, he is just a talking monkey that befriended Ringo. They had internet chats every night before bed. Paul talked to Ringo about his fears, and he assured him that we (his parents) had a good plan in place to take care of him if anything ever happened.

Ok, ok...Paul isn't real...he's the product of some genious who found fun ways to use text to speech technology. Here's a website where you can program a monkey to talk to you. You can also change the background so it looks like the monkey's talking to you from inside a car, while sitting on a bed, or in a field of snow, etc... Paul had many great adventures to share with Ringo. This was all fun and games from my perspective, but Ringo thought Paul was real. When I realized that, my heart sank. I thought, surely, he had to know this was all pretend (after all, I was always typing just before Paul spoke...I assumed Ringo knew I was controlling everything that Paul said). I apologized to Ringo for the whole fiasco. He wasn't mad at me, he was just sad to learn that their friendship wasn't real. Ringo is so sweet and tender, and that "friendship" was very important to him. I cried for about a week after realizing what I'd done. It took us both awhile to get over it. Eventually, we both missed playing with Paul. So, he occasionally makes an appearance in our lives, but this time Ringo knows it's not real.

Do you want to meet Paul? If so, click here.