Welcome to

Dewey's Birthday Tribute!

Let the party begin...



This is Dewey at his first Birthday Party.  That was a whole year ago, and, on
April 6, 2004, this handsome and personable buck will celebrate his Second Birthday! 
That is a major event for a rat, so we're all pretty excited around here!

April 6, 2005:  important update!  Dewey is now three!!! 
Check out his third birthday page.

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Dewey's Life in Pictures

                     

See how cute baby Dewey was?  You can see his one-of-a-kind markings right from
his very first pic.  These pictures were all I had for the first 8 weeks of his life, because
I couldn't travel to SRR Rattery until my summer break started.  You can imagine how
long those 8 weeks were, knowing that sweet, special little face was soon to be in my home!

         

As if I wasn't already frenzied enough, these pics came out soon after the litters' eyes
opened.  When other people saw the picture on the left, I almost had to fight them off for my
little boy.  The darling little guy with the blue hood and white head spot in the right pic is
my beloved Cirrus (CC), who was just as sweet as Dewey is adventurous.  Sadly, we
lost CC to chronic respiratory problems several months ago.



My baby boys' first formal picture.  Though they are SRR rats, they and their litter mates
were actually cared for by Kelly Walsh and her daughter Gill.  The Walshes are very special
people, and they wanted to experience raising rats from birth, so Elisabeth of SRR let them keep
one of her pregnant rats through the birth and weaning.  How I wish I lived close enough to do that!

"Piglet" and "Lou" are the nicknames that Kelly and Gill gave my babies while they were raising
them.  Kelly and Elisabeth assured me that my little "Piglet" was quite a special ratlet, always
making friends and getting into anything he could.  They were not wrong!

             

Here is Dewey at six months, being alternately cute and naughty.  Dewey has never been
sick, except that his eye sometimes gets irritated by stray rexy whiskers.  He's been to the vet
with the others, though, and seems determined to help the vet examine his buddies.  While they all
cower in the travel cage, Dewey struts around the exam table, trying to climb up the vet's arms.

My niece, Kayla, taught Dewey and CC to walk a "tightrope" (actually a plastic rod).  She didn't
need to use treats to get them to cross the rope--they would cross just because they couldn't stand
not being where she was.  I still have little videos that we made of the boys doing this.  Even after
Dewey was a year old, Kayla brought him out to a family gathering once and had him perform his
old trick.  He happily complied, though by then he had learned to demand edible compensation.

Dewey has also tried his hand at being an electrician.  I had a table lamp that had refused to work
for days, and one night I awoke to find it shining in my eyes.  Dewey was standing next to it, front
feet up around the bulb as if he'd been working on it.  When I finally replaced that lamp with a touch
lamp, Dewey quickly learned how to operate it, and taught the others.  I ended up having to disable
the touch feature, because I got tired of having to turn it off multiple times at night.

         

These pictures are from Dewey and CC's first birthday party.  Notice the rakish curl in Dewey's
tail as he steals a bite of cheesecake.  No one can say this rat lacks personality!



Dewey wants yogurt drops.  Now.  This picture was taken last June, when I had just brought
Dash, Flirt, and Banjo home.  Dewey was no longer the baby!  Now he had some littler guys to
push around.  He was great with them, though, and the five boys hit it off almost immediately.

As a matter of fact, before introductions were complete, Dewey was determined to thoroughly
check out the newbies.  This was how we discovered that the gap under the rat room door was big
enough for him to squeeze through.  He went under, crossed the living room, climbed up a
bookshelf, and got on top of the ratlet cage, only to be thwarted by the locked door.  But my
human hide-a-bed guests were a little unnerved to find that big rat looking down at them!

             

And these are the most recent pictures, taken in January 2004 after a snowstorm.  Dewey and
his buds had a great time eating and playing with a big bowl of freshly fallen snow.  In the left
hand picture, they are shamelessly begging Kayla for some yogurt drops.  See how
Dash is standing on her foot?  That is what Dewey does to me every time I try to leave the room
without giving him his yogurt drop.  He gets up on my bare foot and clings to my ankle with
his sweet little front paws.  Needless to say, I find him impossible to resist.

Although Dewey is turning two, it is hard to think of him as an old rat.  He still seems just as
much a ratlet as he ever did, easily keeping up with the younger three.  He is always busy doing
something, and is practically fearless.  Like I said, he's never been sick, and has always been a
great friend to his ratty pals.  I'm so lucky to have had this two years with him, and I look
forward to having him around for a good long time!

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A Message from Dash, Banjo, and Flirt

Dewey's buddies are very excited about his birthday!  They've never been to
a birthday party, but Dewey has told them all about the yummy treats at his first birthday. 
They are all so pumped about this, in fact, that they were inspired to write a special
birthday poem in anticipation of the party food.

Scamp that I am, I've hidden the boys' poem in a word search.  To find the
poem, find and circle the ten words listed below.  Words are hidden in the puzzle
reading horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.  Once you've circled all ten words, the
remaining letters, starting at the top left, will spell out the hidden poem.  Have fun!


(Click on the puzzle to open it in a new window for printing.)
Word List:
SCHWEEZ
RATSTER
FOOFFERDOME
LUGNUT
PET HAVEN
CHLOE
RAT GUIDE
HUGGY BEAR
GROTTO
DICHROMATIC

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The Birthday Party

Click here to see pics from Dewey's actual birthday party!

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Thank you so much for helping Dewey celebrate this very special birthday!
Dewey knows he is a very lucky rat to have so many great human friends!

Happy Birthday, Dewey!