Good Friday

In the dark early hours of Good Friday, tens of thousands of pilgrims walk the roads of New Mexico.  In our area, they are walking to El Santuario de Chimayó, a particularly famous shrine.  Some of them carry big wooden crosses, and some of them walk dozens of miles,  but I am a little hazy on the actual theology involved...I live in a predominantly Catholic state, but am invariably surprised by whatever holiday is suddenly being celebrated.

But in the dark early hours of this morning, I left my own home.

And went for a very long drive to far-away places.

Pilgrims clogged the highways for much of the drive, but I was traveling against the flow.  Different journeys, different goals.  Mine was the usual:

The former owner of these two girls is heading off next week to start training in the Air Force.  She was having a lot of trouble finding a good place for her girls, not least because one is shy and reportedly a little bit bitey.  Which is not an unlikely outcome when you spend several formative days in your infancy sharing a small tank with a boa constrictor.  The things that people do to rats.

I wrote to the former owner and asked if we might arrange some way to get these girls up here.  Like most of my ratties, they've been through an impressive number of homes, and I am pretty sure they'll benefit from a little stability.  Anyway, I think they are cute.

The former meal is a little anxious, so I'm letting her settle in at her own speed.  But she is far from being the most fearful rat we've had.  She is already nosing around my hand, and took a pea from me with extreme politeness, so  I suspect we'll be friends before long.

Her friend is adorable, and comes with her own sad start in life (thoughtlessly purchased as a pet for a small child, which might not be so bad if anyone had bothered to take care of her).  When her original foster mom got her, she was apparently catatonic and wouldn't interact at all.  Until she met her forever friend, and began to blossom.  She's a cheeky little thing now, and already climbing around on me.

 

They are both about a year old, and I think will fit into our main group pretty well.  I'm just giving them a few weeks to settle in first, and getting to know them in the meantime.  Fun!

But phew, that was a long drive.  I am glad to be back home again.