A warm welcome

Yesterday I checked my blog statistics for the first time in ages. For the longest time, Mooshika was reliably viewed by people in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and other French-speaking countries (including those in Africa) as a place to obtain information on pet rodents and animal rescue. Realizing "holy crap, that's half my audience!" I made sure to get the major information translated into French - at the time, by friends and rescue colleagues, not Google Translate - so that it would be easier for readers to find what they needed.

Now, I can see more detail than I used to, and of course the United States, Canada (French and English), France, and the UK are among the countries that visitors come from. However, I was surprised to see that Germany had a much higher visitorship than I expected, and China beat out France and the UK by one visit in the past month. So, Willkommen and 欢迎!  (As for the Russians: nastrovia.)

I would also like to welcome two new rat boys into my home: brothers, separated at weaning, one remaining in his original home only because he went on the lam and was hiding in the furniture (yes, yikes!). The other was adopted out by the Ottawa Humane Society, where his sisters are still available, and later returned to a pet store, to be found and reclaimed by his momma's guardian (owner) and turned over to me. The feral one has since been named Dweezil (and a few days after I named him, I passed the nearby Corona Theatre and saw a poster in the window that Dweezil Zappa will be playing here in a few months. Coincidence?). The new boy, who is less feral, will tell me his name soon enough. They are both suspicious of people, with good reason - their mother was a "feeder" rat, abandoned, set loose, and her companions killed. They will hopefully come to have a better opinion of man's dominion through me.

Dweezil, sleek and well-fed, left. His brother, sweet but scared, right.