u/shoreyknot

How many can she possibly need

This little lady JUMPED from my lap to the desk and yoinked an entire ruffles potato chip off my plate before I could even grab her. Now shes sitting here boggling about her salty treasure. SHAME HER!

She was SO relaxed she was slow mo bruxing with her mouth hanging open 🤣

Last night Tajin randomly parked herself on my monitor stand where she could peek under the monitor and stare at me while I sat there. She is usually a very busy girl so her staying still seemed odd at first... then I noticed her start boggling, and eventually she stretched herself out and laid her head down and just stared at me til she fell asleep. My heart may explode from the cuteness. I hope this is a stare of affection 🥰

**no rattos were endangered**

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I set my meds down on my desk to open my water bottle and this little troublemaker immediately tried to run off with them. SHAME HER!

Every time I pet her lil head 🥹🥹🥰

She curls up inside the circle of my headphones when they're on the desk and just sits there boggling nonstop, it's so weird 🤣😅

Hollywood area

Tajin is a BIG nester and will spend hours on end shredding paper down and making a nest in whatever new little cubbyhole she deems worthy. She spends so much time on them and all the rats always end up in her nests rather than the other million hammocks and hides I supply so they clearly love them. Every time I go to clean the enclosure and have to destroy all her hard work I feel so bad lol. Is it just me?!

Every single day this little potato amazes me with how sweet she is but today takes the cake. I was playing guitar softly while she was hanging out on my desk (softly so as not to scare her). She was very curious about my guitar and when I started singing she climbed into my hoodie and THIS happened 😭😭😭

Plz dont mind the crappy voice and crappy strumming, I was trying to move my hand as little as possible for obvious reasons.

Like is she REAL we don't deserve rats 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Turned away from my breakfast for TWO seconds and those greedy little hands were fishing soggy cereal from my bowl like someone panning for gold 😭

SHAME HER!

My manicurist/spa lady/hair stylist is so bossy, I don't think I should tip her.

When I move my face away she physically pulls it back to the correct angle for ✨️mouth grooming attempts✨️

by FORCE!

...Good news is she threw in a free microneedling session with those little claws 🫠🤣

I really didn't understand what people meant by "heart rat". I'd had enough rattos that I thought I should understand if it was a common phenomenon. But I was adopting seniors that were already attached to their previous owners, and the first young rats I adopted were unfortunately not at all human friendly. Enter Tajin. Oh my gosh, this lil baby. I had no idea I could love something so small this much. Every morning I wake up excited to see her, and hearing her brux on my shoulder is honestly possibly even more rewarding than hearing cats purr. It just clicked. I was like "OH. THIS is what people mean."

Aaaanyway I'm obsessed. I know y'all understand 🥹🥹

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(Top right pic in collage is of my right hand, for comparison lol) first pic is of all that remains of my rat bite. Third is of fresh bite but pinkie bc that was the worst of it. The rest are just close ups of issue.

33 f, 5'8" and around 140 lbs, non smoker, healthy with no medical conditions of note, at least as of most recent blood draw last month

I have developed this weird swollen, painful ring finger on my left hand, seemingly overnight. It hurts a little to straighten and hurts quite a bit to bend; it also feels like I \*cant\* bend it all the way. Feels very stiff. No numbness, tingling, or anything like that just sore and stiff. When splinted in a straight-ish/neutral position there is zero pain.

Sunday it was hurting so bad during a movie I had to go get a cup of ice to stick my hand in. Its quite painful at times unless splinted.

My main theory as to how I may have injured it is that the day before I first noticed it I finished a digital art piece that took 45 hours total (not in one go mind you, over the course of a couple weeks). The last couple days of working on it I switched to my phone because I wasnt feeling well, so there were a couple hours-long stretches where my left hand was holding my phone. My phone is pretty large so my fingers are basically extended to hold it, with my topmost knuckle bent and my fingertips pressing into the side of the phone to hold it.

While focused on the drawing and bc of using a stylus and thus putting a bit of pressure into my grip to keep it steady, it wouldn't terribly surprise me if I strained it a little. But this seems extreme and now I'm about 4 days in and it doesn't feel any better. Going to the dr thursday if nothing improves.

HERE'S THE KICKER:

Around the same time I was finishing this drawing, I was bit quite hard by my daughter's rat. It broke skin in three places (she bit twice), my pinkie sustained the worst bite but my ring finger got punctured as well. While I'm fairly confident it isn't because of that, especially bc no other symptoms have cropped up, but naturally I am concerned.

Oh also, the swelling didn't begin noticeably until day 2 and got worse on day 3 and then evened out (didn't improve but didnt worsen). Any ideas on what this is/how I can facilitate it healing? TIA!

Tl;dr swollen, painful and stiff ring finger from possible overuse injury. Doesn't seem to be improving.

Wide angle lenses are the best thing to happen to rat photography and you won't convince me otherwise

I look away for half a second and she's tryna sneak a coffee. Shame her!!

(Jk yall it was empty dont worry)