Oh yummy, dad is on this new healthy eating thing and it is so yummy. He takes some yoghurt and adds bananas puts them all in a blender and mushes them up, mushy is always good. He eats it with me and always shares, oh yummy it is so good. And because it is healthy I can eat as much as I want and don’t get told off.
Mum had this crazy idea that I might be lonely on my own, so she decided to introduce me to Mouse and his brothers. I was not a happy rattie. The thought of sharing my dinner with four other rats did not appeal to me. I do miss Willow and Biscuit, but I am quite happy on my own now. Especially as mum and dad spoil me rotten. Anyway they were bonkers rats running around all over the place, knocking into me. I have always liked things at a nice slow gentle pace. I had to let mum know that I wasn’t happy so I puffed up my fir and started side kicking the other rats when they came near me. Mum soon got the message and I am happily alone in my cosy little home, eating plenty of yummy food.
I’ve been kinda lonely since Biscuit went away. Mum and dad have been spending a lot of time with me, they let me snuggle in their clothes and don’t even get cross when I get so cosy that I tiddle.
Ooh, Christmas is so exciting and there is lots to eat. Mum brought home this huge tin of yummy chocolates from where she works, mmm. Mum and dad needed help eating them all. I’m very helpful like that and for Christmas day we had this special yummy meal. There was peas and brown runny stuff for dinner, I couldn’t stop eating it. I had to spend all afternoon asleep. I helped put up the Christmas decorations too, I’m such a good boy. I like helping mum and dad it makes them laugh and that makes me laugh. I like the Christmas tree it makes pretty twinkling lights that change colour, I could sit and watch it for hours.
Biscuit and Badger wanted to take a break from their diary this month so they said Mouse and his brothers could say hello.
I like being a rat and I really like living with mum and dad. They treat me really nice and they let me come out to watch TV with them. It makes me feel really special when I sit behind their heads on the sofa and they notice I’m there. They reach over and cuddle me, it makes me giggle. I can’t believe how much I get to do. Before I lived with mum and dad I didn’t get to have much fun, I lived in a pet shop with my brothers. Mum says pet shops aren’t very nice places for animals to stay in for too long. No one wanted me, I don’t know if it was because I sway my head from side to side, mum says it’s because we all just got too big and some people just want baby animals. I know it doesn’t matter now because I am really happy and I know I make mum and dad happy to.
Badger’s entry:Things just aren’t the same without Willow, I really miss him. Mum likes it when I run around and do Willow type things like climbing on the furniture and running around, but it’s just not as much fun as when Willow was here. I don’t understand why he had to leave, we all loved him so much. Our cage seems so big with just Biscuit and me in it and no one fits in the tube that Willow used to sleep in, mum says she is going to get a bigger one so me and Biscuit can use it, it makes her sad to see Willow’s tube all empty.
With the sad loss of our amazing little rattie Willow, Biscuit and Badger were to upset to write their diary entries. So they have picked out some of their favourite Willow photos and memories to share.
Badger’s entry:Yuck mum gave us this new bedding, it’s called carefresh and it is horrible. It sticks to my toes and my tummy. I keep throwing it out the cage and dad tells me off, but it is just so horrible. Mum is going to give us our bio-catolet back next time we get cleaned out. The weather is not so hot anymore so I’ve been having fun running around. And my 
appetite is as healthy as always, it is much easier to enjoy my dinner now I’m not so warm. Willow has been showing me all these places he has discovered, we have to climb really high. Mum and dad were amazed I could be so energetic, they were so proud of me they gave us broccoli for supper, yummy.
It’s been so hot, I don’t like it hot. Sometimes I don’t even like to eat but that doesn’t happen very often. Mum and dad got another rat, he’s called Otter and I’m pleased to say he lives with the other rats, cause you know I don’t like to share my food.
Not much to say really, Badger keeps getting grumpy because it’s hot. I like to stay out of his way. Willow is as silly as ever he thinks he climbed a tree, but it was just a potted plant in the dining room window.
Our new rattie arrivals Mole, Mouse & Ferret
We have some new brothers, they don’t live with us but mum has told us all about the new boys them. There names are Mole, Mouse and Ferret and they are not a cute as us, but that would be very difficult because mum says we are the cutest bunch of rats ever. They were at the pet shop and nobody wanted them, dad said mum could get just Mole and he could live with us but the woman at the pet shop asked her to take them all because they were getting big and most people only want baby rats. Dad says Mole is fat he calls him lardy and teaspoon, because one end is bigger than the other. I find it hard to believe that he could possibly be chubbier that Badger, he takes up so much room it is unbelievable.