I had decided to take the Elizabethan collar that was given to my rat and put velcro in it. It makes it very easy to get off and on and for things in our normal routine. Little Bastard gets Greek yogurt every morning. He also has porphyrin all over his face from not being allowed to take his normal dry baths. He looked miserable. Every time I had seen him grooming his tummy I would check the surgical site and if there were any colors of blood going on, back with the collar!

Now, I left it off of him for the day. Dismal was not happy with me at putting my rat at risk but he really does need a good day’s sleep and last I noticed, his tummy was healing nicely underneath and Lbs was just picking at the scabs. He made a huge nest of bedding and crashed out. You would never know there was an enormous naked rat in there that had recently tried to kill my parrot.

Yes. He did. He did try to kill my parrot.

I was on the living room floor laying on my stomach and talking to him while he was in his secondary room, grooming and snacking on dog things. Koi flew down to the floor near my butt and started asking me what I was doing. Little Bastard saw this and after taking a few steps out of his stash shack, he charged at her full steam and pinned her. While she was screaming I had kept thwumping him on the butt yelling, “NO!” with each harsh pat to his royal nekkidness. He let go and she went back to her cage. She was shaken and some floofy feathers came out around her neck but she was fine. He didn’t get into her skin.

It’s pretty scary around here when things like that happen. My home has birds, a rat, guinea pigs, cats and a dog. None of them quarrel… except the birds and the rat.

I really beat myself up inside that day.