How is Maple doing?

I haven’t noticed a drastic change in our rats after Olive passed away, and Maple is still making awesome progress with her training. I’ll admit, it is sad and rather strange getting up and giving them a share of my morning porridge. I always expect to see Olive stick her fuzzy head out of her nest, and then I remember she’s gone. Despite that, Maple is becoming friendlier! yesss!!!! This morning I put her in my hoodie and she sat there for a while before sticking her head out and tickling me with her whiskers 🙂 She’s accepting being held more, and she’s certainly much better than she was at the beginning and has passed Olive and her first milestones like a racecar! She sits in my jersey and on my shoulder and trots about my room while I read my book. She can be timid sometimes but when I get out the seeds she’s out there, bouncing and sniffing and grabbing!

Yesterday I did some training with the rat-harness (we have harnesses for them) and it was my original goal to get her wearing one. I realised Olive could’ve worn it when she was older (she refused when she was little) because she was super-chill and snuggly. Anyway, Maple let me drape it over top of her while she ate her granola. Before I even try putting the straps on I’m going to just spend lots of time handling her (holding her upside down, tickling her tummy ect. until she’s very confident being handled, and then I’ll try putting the harness on her.

I miss Olive so much and it is really weird; everything happened so quickly and I was so busy I barely had any time to remember she’s gone, but I find it much easier to fuss over Maple because that’s what she’d want me to do. My goal is to get Maple as tame as Olive was before I only have a few months left of her to fully enjoy her friendliness. Thanks for everything Olive, and thank you for everything in advance Maple ❤️ I’ll keep posting pictures of Maple and her progress as much as I can; she’s doing so well!