Ben, the two of us need look no more....

 I've mentioned before - we have pet rats.
We love "our boys"... they're affectionate, lovable, clean and just fun.

So, imagine my reaction when I received a text today from G saying that one of my sister in law's friends (who also is a fancy rat owner) said that she was given a rat that was abandoned - and surprise - she was pregnant.  So on Tuesday, her new girl gave birth to 6 teensy tiny babies.  Of course, the next question was -- did we want one? (or two....)

To my shock, G said "yes"....
(Insert big smiley face here....)

So, while I do have to buy a new tank and condo top - since we have to do that anyway, we might as well take two.  Two rats are no more work than one, and honestly - we'll have 6 rats at that point.  (I know, you're thinking "intervention", right?)  Well, truthfully - 6 rats go through no more food than 4 do.  And they're so clean!!  They don't smell, they keep their cages neat (except for oldest boy Snake who is a bit messy....) and sadly, they don't live for very long.  Two and a half years is the most usually.  Snake is a year with us in July, and he could've been 6 months when we got him so....we don't know how much longer he'll be with us; Pop Tart will be with us a year in September, and while we know he was younger, it may not have been by much.  Stefano & Wilfork are just babies....and then we'll have these new guys.

(Honestly, my house is big enough that these guys basically have their own floor!  They're up in "Kidtown" which is sort an au pair suite, so it's not as if we're over run with animals.  It sounds worse than it actually is. )

We've determined that these will be "Pokemon" boys.  The kids each get to name one after their favorite Pokemon creature.

We can't get them until their 21 days old, so we have about 14 more to go.
...the countdown is on!