September

The last few days have been quite eventful. Apart from reading some rather worrying things on the GPR list about owners being attacked by their rats Kali has been getting bolder and bolder during her playtime.

Twice now she's managed to jump the barrier that I put up at the bottom of the stairs. She climbed up my back and jumped off from my shoulder to get over the barrier. As soon as she's over she races upstairs and explores the landing. I was really scared for her because we've got open banisters on the landing and a couple of times I thought she was going to fall. Last night I put a load of cushions down so that if she did fall she'd have a soft landing. Kali spent so long exploring the cushions that she didn't even try to get up stairs.

She was quite quiet during her playtime last night and didn't really get up to much at all. She spent quite a lot of time just sitting about. I did wonder if she was ill but she seemed OK and she ate well. Perhaps it was just the arrival of the cushions.

She's also more active at breakfast time. Once I left the lid of her house off while I went to the kitchen to clean her water bowl and when I got back she was walking round the top of her house looking for a way down. I still have to be a bit careful when I put her bowls in as she pounces at the noise. Sometimes I think that she's just eager to get her breakfast but I don't want to risk my fingers.

I've stopped using all the armour inside the rat fighting glove. I think I may be able to get rid of the glove completely soon because Kali's getting easier and easier to pick up. She still doesn't like it but she puts up with it without too much protest as long as it doesn't go on too long.

I've started building Kali's new house. It's going to be about twice the size of her existing one and will make quite a feature in the living room. It will give her more room to run and jump about.
 

Kali's still sleeping in her new corner - right under the door to her house but she's stopped pooing in the water. She's now using the corner she used to sleep in.

We had another bit of a breakthrough last night when she was out playing. For the first time she climbed up onto me. I was sitting at the foot of the stairs and she was up on my leg, on my arm and sniffing my hands and fingers. I felt really privileged.
 

Monday
16 September
2002

Kali's really made progress this last week. I've had her out for a run a few times and she has been quite easy to pick up. She doesn't climb into my hand or anything but a lot of the aggression has gone. I think she is beginning to associate being picked up with being let out to play. She still spend about five minutes sitting quietly in a corner, or behind something, before she starts to explore but once she gets going she gets more and more hyper. Play time lasts about an hour and on Wednesday evening, after about an hour, she seemed ready to go home and was easy to get back home.

She's now using a potty when she's out playing. I really didn't have to train her to do it. I half filled a non-splash dog bowl with water and put it in the corner. She now uses it all the time for pooing and weeing in.

The week didn't end on such a good note though. We were going to be away all day Saturday so I did her weekly clean-out on Friday night after her run rather than Saturday morning as usual. On Sunday I got her out to play during the afternoon rather than the evening. This change of routine seems to have upset her. She spent ages rearranging her house after I cleaned it out. She's now sleeping in a different corner, right next to her food and water bowls which makes changing them a bit of a challenge in the mornings. I nearly abandoned her Sunday afternoon playtime because she spent over half an hour just sitting in the corner. Eventually she became active and started to explore but she wasn't very active.
 

Tuesday
10 September
2002

More poos in the water bowl this morning and again Kali was up and about in her house when I brought the food. She was very interested as I put the bowls in the cage - up on her back legs, ears twitching and sniffing hard.
 

I couldn't sleep last night - I think I'm coming down with a cold. I lay awake listening to Kali thumping about in her house; knocking her ladder down, gnawing her apple wood and, unfortunately, her plastic tubes. I went down to watch her a couple of times but I couldn't see how she was making the thumping noise. As soon as I turned the light on she quietened down and busied herself with eating and rearranging her food stores. Its amazing how big she is now - too big for her house. I really must get on making her new house.

Morning clean-out proved interesting. Kali was curled up in her nest as usual when I took out her bowls (she'd pooed in her water bowl again!) but when I came to put the bowls back she was up and about. Having been bitten by her a few times I didn't want to go plunging my hand into her house. I got both bowls in without much fuss. I took it slowly and carefully and stopped each time she came forward to investigate what was going on.

Kali came out for a run in the hall again tonight. She wasn't too difficult to catch this time but as soon as she realised that she was going into the hall for playtime she fought to be let go. The glove saved me again! She sulked for about five minutes then started to explore and search for her treats.

She was out for about an hour and towards the end she fell when climbing on the chair and hurt her leg again. She seemed to run the injury off very quickly. She nearly climbed up onto me but couldn't quite bring herself to do it - maybe next time.
 

Saturday
7 September
2002

Kali had a great run out in the hall again this morning. Getting her out of her house was still quite difficult but once she can out she really seemed to enjoy herself. She only took about five minutes to get over the shock of being picked up then she was up and off round the hall. Climbing on everything and sniffing out her treats. She's really mastered climbing on the chair and, although she's still rather clumsy, she climbs right to the top of the chair back and even onto the door handle.

I've noticed that her limp was improving - which is a great relief.
 

Wednesday
4 September
2002