Good News from Unexpected, January 2007
Lucy
Thank you for all the wonderful cards and letters; it is always nice to hear from friends near and far and hear what has been happening in your lives. Many people wrote regarding the pretty model featured on our annual greeting card. That photo was taken last year when my girl Lucy was showing off her new fleece coat and her attitude. Lucy is a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a spunky, short haired breed from Africa (hence the coat she hates the cold). She has not had the opportunity to wear it since last year, due to the unsettling warm weather we are experiencing on the east coast. I think, based upon the flood of scientific information to date, we had better get used to unsettling weather patterns.
The summer was dry, and by mid August the Main Pond resembled a grassy field again. Fall was unseasonably wet and very windy, and today the ponds and bogs here are full and portions of the hiking trails are under water.
The beavers are experiencing an easy winter, however. So far we’ve only had a couple of nights cold enough to rim the pond with a thin icy skin, which melted by late morning. The beavers are still coming up from their lodge in Miller Pond and enjoying a snack of poplar on the Dike. I have seen the otter family frolic up and down stream on their never-ending adventure for food and fun, and I have spied red foxes trotting through the Refuge three times this winter. Of course the waterfowl are taking it easy.
“Rodenta Unexpecta”
Ray, a friend of mine, was picking up trash along the road near his home when he found the cardboard box. It was about a foot square and duct taped shut — bits of shredded paper stuck out of the hole where the flaps were folded in on each other. He said he didn’t remember seeing it on the way up the road, but now here it was, twelve feet off the tarmac where it landed in the underbrush. Ray stepped off the paving and approached the box. He picked it up and found a small face watching him warily from the opening. It was a rat.
Ray is a good guy who is concerned about the environment and tries to live lightly on this earth. From sitting on the Township Environmental Committee to picking up litter, he tries to make a difference.
After finding the rat and taking it home, and convincing his mate to please let him back into the house with it, he discovered not just a rat, but a mother rat. A domestic pet rat with seven newborn, hairless babies clinging to her for life. Someone did this on purpose — she unexpectedly gave birth and the owner boxed her up and threw her out like so much worthless trash. At least they didn’t feed her and her brood to a snake, the fate of most domestic rats sold from pet stores.
Ray read up on rats and discovered that they were pretty cool. His wife Mary was not so easily swayed, but the rat pack stayed — at least until they were old enough to adopt out to good homes. Momma rat raised her family, and four weeks later the little ones were weaned and eating solid food. One thing Ray discovered in Rats 101 is that the little rodents are reproductively active at five weeks. He had to move fast and separate the males from the females immediately.
Ray decided to keep the mother and one daughter to live with him and Mary (okay, she did sway a little). He gave me a call, packed up his rats and came to Unexpected for a little rat separation party. My intent was to foster the fellows while finding them safe, snake-free homes. Ray brought the information on how to identify their sexes, and we settled down on the porch floor with two terrariums and got to work.
Bobbin
I took one look at these little creatures and was absolutely captivated. They were adorable. We separated them and they explored their respective tanks, the boys less enthusiastically than the girls. The biggest boy was all white with a “dirty” nose, and had classic ruby-red eyes. The other male was grayish brown with little white feet and white belly — he appeared to be right out of a children’s storybook. His eyes were dark and his demeanor was very calm. They are Ratman and Bobbin, respectively.
In the girl’s tank, there was a female counterpart to Ratman, only smaller. The other two females looked like tiny Holstein rats with random black and white coats, one of them obviously the boss. They all smelled sweet and their coats shone brilliantly, with a rainbow sheen. We took the tanks to the nursery and gave them fresh water and lettuce. They settled down after a little while and snuggled up together for a nap; the boys pressed themselves against the glass next to the three tired girls, now motherless and apart for the first time.
Now, I have a little experience with the big rodents. When I first arrived here at Unexpected, Hope told me stories about her vast experience with beavers and gave me books to read. I was also fortunate enough to meet with and feed a family of nine beavers nightly on the long boardwalk for an entire summer. I got to watch them socialize, eat, bathe and play. But rats? I didn’t know the first thing about these small rodents, except that they are reviled by just about everyone. After reading about them on the internet, I discovered that they are quite fascinating! The males are called bucks and the females, does. According to one website, the babies are called kittens, just like beaver babies! (They are also referred to as pups.) They are clean, intelligent, curious, polite, social and very much like beavers, especially when they bathe and when they eat lettuce, holding it in their dainty little hands.
I am sure you know what happened next. I failed miserably in my obligation to find homes for these orphans. The joy, affection, tenderness and entertainment they have brought into the cabin will just have to be tolerated now that they are part of the family. Oh,I might add, the cute little boy with the white feet and tummy sat on my shoulder and snuggled my ear while I wrote this little story for you — perhaps he’s working on his next book.
How about That Book
Perhaps Bobbin’s book will be about making choices. Like choosing between a luscious leaf of romaine lettuce or a juicy blueberry, or whether he should nap in his cozy tissue lined nest box or lounge up on the top deck.
Maybe he will write a beaver book; beavers have to make choices. They may choose between damming this stream or that; building a concealed bank burrow or a conventional lodge. Usually, when beavers make the “wrong” decision it is really because humans have imposed themselves upon a beaver’s rightful habitat, resulting in conflict. There are ways through which we humans can easily mitigate the result of “inconvenient” beaver activity.
Often times the decisions that we humans make in our lives are far reaching and sometimes the consequences can be frightening. The size of our families, our lifestyles, diets, the kind of car we choose to drive or type of house we choose to live in all impact this planet we share.
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Perhaps for this New Year we should all resolve to remember our individual power. Walk or take the bus instead of drive. Use solar panels and cool that smaller house with trees and install a raingarden to reduce runoff. Go vegetarian and buy local food. Purchase products that use the least amount of packaging possible, buy in bulk, join a co-op. A couple of years ago I worked in a landfill for a few days. It was an eye-opener. Imagine a steady stream of trash and dump trucks queuing up to unload mountains of our garbage, from nine to five, five days a week, year after year — all the result of the choices we make. When the trashman comes, that plastic bag loaded with your discarded choices doesn’t just disappear into thin air.
I hope Bobbin’s book has a happy ending. We are all helping to write it.