Irony

This is Dango, one of Daughter's pet rats. He's actually a "bonus" rat, because when I went out on Halloween to get a new little ratlet to be a companion for Vlad, I ended up coming home with two. If I was just going to pick one, it would have been Shiroyuki, because his mostly white coloring made him clearly distinguishable from Vlad. But I just couldn't bring myself to leave this little guy behind.

Anyway, getting to the irony part, Dango is what's called a "Dumbo" rat, because of the way the low-set ears sort of stick out. Yet Demetrius commented early on that he seemed to be the "brains of the operation". He was right.

Case in point, the critters live in a two story cage, and sometimes I set this toy farmhouse on top of the cage, and put some snacks in it. It's been interesting watching the boys trying to figure out how to get to the food. They can smell it, and it's clearly right above them when they're on the top floor of the cage. But there's no way to get to the food by going up. They have to go down to the bottom floor--where I've opened the cage door for them--and then climb up the outside of the cage. Watching them figure this out has been a major source of entertainment for me for the past few days. I mean, it's just so counterintuitive--having to go downstairs in order to access the yummy treats that are right there above their heads.

But the "Dumbo" figured it out pretty quickly, and once he had, he was off like a shot as soon as I opened that cage door. The first time he did it, I was caught by surprise--I'd only turned my head away for a second, and there he was on top of the cage, helping himself to the snacks in the barn. If I didn't know better, I'd think he teleported there.

Vlad figured out the process today. Poor Shiroyuki is still at a loss. So I pick him up and set him on outside of the cage, near the top so that he can climb that last little bit on his own and still get some treats. But I know the light bulb will go on for him soon enough.

I think the appeal for me here is the gratification of observing rapid learning and clearly measurable progress. That's something of a rarity for me.

Speaking of which, we have two meetings tomorrow about Son and some additional help we're pursuing for him. Wish us luck.

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