I had an almost empty tube of black acrylic, so I gave it to Grace and crew. Oh, and for obsessive asses at certain corners of the ‘net, why yes, that is a Hobby Lobby label! That paint was purchased years ago, prior to imposing a self-ban on buying there. Have fun insisting I’m lying!
Photos © C. Ford.
Who the hell does that?!
also, do rats like plastic tubes? They don’t eat it, do they?
Alexander:
Oh, people from a certain ‘pit. There are a number of referrers from there already. Anyroad, it would seem that a good number of those people are of the opinion that everything I say is a lie.
They don’t care for plastic, no. They will chew it open to get to the paint, though. Rats have inner cheek flaps, which can be used as sort of a gate, so they can chew like crazy without swallowing whatever they are chewing.
Caine #2
This is awesome and I’m now very jealous (until now I thought that only the naked mole rat had such protection).
A friend of the family was a heraldrist back in the 70s, and did the whole thing: hand-mixed pigment and linseed oil on vellum. Very cool. One day mice discovered that linseed oil was yummy. And there was this constellation of rainbow colored poops including some that were full of gold leaf…. It would have been lovely except it was on a piece of perfect white parchment.
Alexander:
It is awesome. Rats have some great features. Their front teeth grow continually, one of the reasons they brux (grind teeth), and need to have stuff to chew on.
Marcus @ 4:
Oh gods, yes. I have to keep my linseed oil well locked away. I can’t speak for mice, but rats adore things like bag balm, vaseline, lip balm, and lotion. Having a large crew of rats get into vaseline leaves a very unpleasant day of clean up.
Marcus Ranum @ 4
Did they collect the mouse droppings to recover the gold?
The first picture: “This is mine now!”
Ice Swimmer:
Yep. She wanted me to stop pestering her with the camera, so she could get to chewing.
Squee! They are so sweet and adorable.
Does eating lotion cause any clean-up problems for you? I have some lotion that we can’t use due to skin irritations… And I have been thinking of sending a summer treat collection for them. :D
Hekuni Cat, no, no problems with lotion. They don’t eat it much, they just like chewing a zillion holes in the bottles.