Rat teeth

Yeah, a weird title for a post. But it's what this post is about.

Stay tuned to learn about rat teeth, and about what can happen when they go wrong.

Funny thing about a rat's front teeth is that they keep growing, always and forever. This means that rats have to continually chew on things to keep their teeth a reasonable length. But...sometimes they can't.

Beka's front teeth have somehow gone crooked, and she can't gnaw them down anymore. One of her lower front teeth is actually pointing back into her mouth, and that's BAD. That tooth was already poking a hole in the roof of Beka's mouth when the problem was discovered. You can imagine how horrified I was when the vet told me that.

Luckily, there's an easy solution: we trim Beka's teeth for her.

I'll be taking Beka to the vet to get her teeth trimmed regularly. I guess I could learn to do it myself, and part of me feels like that's the truly responsible thing to do. But I know it can be tricky, and I would be too scared of cutting her tongue.

In addition to routine tooth trimming I now have to break Beka's food into bite sized bits for her. It turns out that rats use their front teeth to do that job, and that with her teeth so crooked Beka can't do that anymore

This will be a life long thing for Beka. There is no way to fix her teeth. Yeah, I could have the problem teeth removed, as the vet suggested, and it's not like they're doing her any good anymore anyways...but I don't want to put Beka through dental surgery unless absolutely necessary. And it isn't necessary, so long as they can be trimmed.

I'm just glad we caught this problem, and that I don't have to do the trimming myself.

Resolutions?

Last year I didn't bother coming up with any resolutions. This year...maybe?

I do have some things I want to do, but they are just normal "well yeah duh" stuff.

1) Get my HDL cholesterol up where it needs to be
2) Find full time employment
3) Move out of my parents home
4) Get healthy, if at all possible

...that sort of thing. You know, things that were already on my to-do list. So I'm not sure that I could call them resolutions for the new year.

Maybe my only really proper new year resolutions are my reading challenges. (In which case I would have had resolutions after all last year, since I also did reading challenges then.) I have a page on my book blog about my reading challenges this year, and I also have a reading list of books that I intend to read this year.

Do you go for the whole new years resolutions thing? Or do you not really see the point?

So delicious...

Totally off topic I know, but BROWNIES!!! :) I made Balrog Brownies last night, which are delicious and have several kinds of chocolate in them. So yummy...

A new year

Just minutes to the new year, and I was on Facebook. I suddenly realized that I did not want to enter the new year on Facebook, so I closed down the browser and picked up a book of poetry. I was on "Birches" by Robert Frost when people started making lots of noise in my neighborhood. I assume that marked midnight. I don't know, I had my eyes on a poem and didn't want to look up. :)

It's less than 24 hours into the new year, but already it seems pretty good. At 1am I got cozy with hot ginger tea and heating pads on my cold feet, and started reading The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. The first book is on loan from my boyfriend, and I intend to read the whole series this year.

...and that was about the extent of my celebrating, aside from eating steak (in oyster sauce!) at a nice restaurant that I went to with mom and dad last evening. Mom and Tall One decided to go to bed early, so I was pretty much left to my own devices yesterday, and they don't seem to have plans today.

Though, I did get to see Murray yesterday afternoon. We watched a couple of Glee episodes at his place, determined that I still don't have a taste for beer, and I cried over a Glee song. Murray isn't used to seeing me cry, and asked if he hurt me. Gosh I love that man. ♡

Happy 2013!