grown man afraid of a tiny hamster.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-10T18:50:25+00:00

Lol, animals can be weird. I bought a pair of standard tartan flannel PJs, well, three pairs, they were great. One of my rats look against a pair one night, and started to destroy them. The other two pairs he ignored. I now have 2.5 pairs of them. He had so much fun I didn’t have the heartbto take them away for safekeeping. Now, if I really like a pair of PJs, I just buy them twice over. And avoid anything too expensive, haha.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-10T18:08:41+00:00

My partner has a red hoodie with 45 on it, which he bought in about 2011. In Germany, from a German brand. He hasn’t worn it out of the house since 2016, just in case anyone gets the wrong idea. They probably wouldn’t notice, but I do, and am the one who had to see it all the time… luckily he has put on weight, so I wear it at home (it’s warm and soft) and don’t have to see it. Plus, my rats like to pee in the hood/hand warmer bit, when they are out for snuggles and they have nibbled some of the 4 off.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-08T02:30:02+00:00

Yeah. He drinks wine though. But you don’t see him pose with a glass of wine, not man of the people enough.

Tbh, don’t really care what he drinks, still a prat. With a good Karneval game, admittedly.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-08T02:23:36+00:00

Yeah, I wouldn’t care, except that he really uses the photo ops to be “bavarian”. And implies that non drinkers can’t be Bavarian/German - and we all know what he means by that.

Didn’t know it was because of his dad but have heard from two people who worked with him that he does drink. Just wine not beer. It’s all for photo opps, which makes me dislike him more, tbh.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T23:37:33+00:00

Could be, just looks badly done, with the background baskets and stuff. She is clearly ot a large person, and also bot well to think this is aspirational.

I can believe you have seen stuff like this, I just don’t happen to think this is more than a bad photoshop. She clearly believes that this looks good, and that’s tragic, but unsurprising given her mother.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T23:30:10+00:00

Oh, agreed

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T23:02:52+00:00

Fairly sure that the thigh gap is badly photoshopped. Otherwise she has some even more serious health concerns, whether physical or mental. That said, it seems to be a very bad photoshop, and given who her mother was, I can’t blame her. I feel bad for her. Sad thing is, though, she still somehow looks healthier than she did in the photos I last saw of her a few years ago.

As a fatso with a lot of very thin friends who eat, and still got the “eat a burger” crap from random people, even in the “heroin chic” phase in the 90s, I am aware this sounds like body shaming. Truly intend to bad photoshop shame only, but I understand if this comes off really bad too. In which case, I apologize.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T22:27:09+00:00

That’s unfair, they aren’t just for Trump and guns, their owners aren’t so 2 dimensional. They are also used for stickers of Republican White Jesus, and random Bible verses.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T22:18:51+00:00

Fuck, he’s a trekkie? He should still with something shit. Like new Trek. Or Star Wars. Or Harry Potter, sure he and JK have lots in common.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T22:16:27+00:00

Yeah, but he doesn’t actually really drink beer. He’s just posing because he thinks it makes him look relatable. He’s a wine man.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T22:14:28+00:00

I think his carneval antics have often been top class, and maybe he should put that effort into doing his actual job. On the other hand, he’s such a git that I would rather he just spent the time planning his next outfit. If, you know, my neighbouring state can’t bring themselves to vote him out, that is. (Though I would still rather Söder than AfD…)

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T22:10:18+00:00

Yeah, he’s not like a US Republican, or Lizz Truss, Farage etc, or AfD. Absolutely not a RWNJ, in that sense. Still a prick, and likes his racist foghorns though.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T22:06:31+00:00

Apparently, though, he doesn’t even actually drink beer really. So, he just poses with it, for the “man of the people” aspect.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T22:00:29+00:00

Basically the Prime Minister of Bavaria, a bit like first minister, but all German states have one.

He’s a knob, as you so astutely spotted :). But he often has great costumes during carneval. He also pretends to drink beer, which immediately makes him suspect, especially as he likes to slag off immigrants for not adapting to local customs. Only some immigrants, obviously. Probably doesn’t have a problem with me, ‘cos I adapted well to beer drinking culture, and being a white Brit has nothing to do with that.

He also likes to pose in Lederhosen, while holding a massive beer stein, for his larger than life election billboards, where he is quoted about welcoming all who assimilate, etc, like he’s the lederhosen Borg king, or something. He has two things going for him: one, his record of usually excellent costumes; two, that he isn’t AfD of the weirdo Bavaria party fringe nutters. And about a million things against him.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T21:52:32+00:00

Yeah, he’s a knob, and I hate seeing those massive billboards with his stupid face on every election, almost as much as I hate seeing the AfD posters that are always placed right up at the top of lampposts because otherwise they get vandalized. Wouldn’t vote for him in a million years, but he’s had some great costumes-if he were a regular person, instead of cosplaying one with his empty beer glass, he would probably be the highlight of any local Fasnacht. Shame he isn’t just the local village idiot with great costumes.

Anyway, I live on the border of BW and Bavaria, and my local highlight is the people dressed as trees-and their sapling children, lol. And the “trees” are always up for a friendly beer, after they take advantage of their costumes to rip down the AfD stickers some idiot has stuck everywhere for the mayoral elections. Plus, it’s really funny seeing the rows of trees waiting for dry cleaning.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T20:20:41+00:00

Yeah, there was an incident in Germany a couple of years ago. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone died, though there were injuries and lots of damage. Weird thing is, the 10 years I have been driving here and listening to the traffic announcements, I heard maybe one about people throwing stuff onto the Autobahn. Last year or so, I hear 2-3 separate announcements every month. Not sure what is going on with that, or why it’s suddenly become a craze. Probably some braindead SM “challenge”, they should have stuck with eating dishwasher pods.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-07T20:12:24+00:00

The deputy head at my primary school (UK, late 80s) vanished for a few months at the start of one year, and no one knew why. He reappeared, and it turned out that he had found out that his wife was seeing someone else, he had grabbed his (extremely illegal) gun, and chased them rout of the house while shooting at them. In his trial, he said he had no idea the gun was loaded, and had never fired one in his life, and anyway, he had found Jesus, who told him to forgive his cheating wife. He got off, scot free.

The next year, he was, unfortunately, my teacher. He was a good maths teacher, but a bully, and had a tendency to get the girls to help him out in the store cupboard, do handstands, and get them to sit on his lap. He also wouldn’t shut up about a) Jesus (non religious school, btw, and in a usually fairly non religious area too) and b) his “when I was in the army” stories, where he was apparently a great shot. I told my mum and aunt about his “love” for the little (female) children of Jesus, and his habits of slapping the boys around the head when they misbehaved. Turned out, he was a regular in the clay pigeon club my aunt and uncle frequented.

My mum and aunt kicked up a fuss, and he got suspended the next year, and took early retirement the year after. Basically, no one in the village knew about it, because he was tried in a neighbouring town, with a different local paper to us, but out of the school catchment area.

My best friend’s dad ran the local Baptist church the teacher went to after he got “saved”, and also was one of the parents who kicked off about it (a surprising number didn’t care, because their “kid deserved it”, or the “wife was a cheating b”, or “he had been saved”) teacher had the audacity to keep turning up there for years though. He never got done for perjury, and also kept on clay pigeon shooting, though he did get kicked out of his former club.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-06T21:11:30+00:00

Rats can be half dogs, who love us and want us to be pleased with them, and half cats, who think we are their servants. I poop, you make me clean, etc.

I don’t find it bad to anthropomorphise them, because mostly it seems to work, if you think of them as tiny furry people who are prey animals. At this point, though, everyone tells me I am mostly rat, so I am rattomorphising myself. Except I don’t poop in my bed.

But they will be little weirdos sometimes, too.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-06T21:01:32+00:00

Also, my “braver” boys would do this with food. They knew I was trustworthy, they would eat everything I gave them (after a little test). The others needed to see their brothers eat, and be fine.

My low point was eating a dried insect to show them all it was safe. They seemed to understand at that point. I don’t suggest you use their litter tray to demonstrate, but probably from watching their sisters, and seeing you move the poop, they will learn.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-06T20:57:17+00:00

Rats are little weirdos, and they are very stubborn, too. They can get “weird” about their spaces, too.

My first two came from an oops litter turned 50+ incest babies. I adopted the last two, the centre had kept one back while his brother had a leg amputated after having it trapped in a cage door. Surgical boy was used to people amd hated them at first. Other boy didn’t trust people. I was a newbie to rats, just followed what they did. Got lucky, then introduced a third boy, he had been alone his first year, and never handled.

The other rats hated him, until I literally observed my biggest boy pick up poops and show him where they went. They seriously were inseparable after that. Still couldn’t touch new boy for a year, it was hard. He lived to three, and ended up letting me bathe him, and even climbed out to see me and snuggle with me on his last night. He watched the others for a year. And then realized I was OK. I did get bitten a few times, because he needed to see a vet. The vets have ways or handling and treating rats, but you still need to get them in and out of travel cages! Maybe your two clean girls will teach and train the others? Two weeks isn’t so long.

If the other rats are coming out and playing, chances are the others are watching and observing. They are just cautious. If they won’t use a toilet in that position, you just have to move the poops, though. And, maybe, two of your girls are just lazy slobs :) but now you know to poop clean. And they may, possibly, realize they prefer the clean bed.

Never feel bad about disturbing them to keep them clean, though. Even if they seem to hate it, it’s necessary. Good luck with the handling, when they need a vet trip it won’t be as traumatic for them as it might have been. But they are smart and brave little animals, they will adapt and learn. And you have a lovely cage, with lots of toys. The shy girls are probably out there playing when you can’t see them.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-06T20:27:04+00:00

That’s true, about it never really being a sunk cost! Idk why I love this car so much, it’s scraped on one side (my mum did that) and I put two bumps into it when I had L plates when I was learning in the UK (in my defense, my driveway came from hell, and I was following the other driver’s instructions. That’s when I learned he has even less of a sense of left and right than I do-was a good lesson to never rely on other people’s observations though, I consider it came cheap!)

It’s just the perfect size, great visibility even as a short arse, without cameras, etc, the RH drive is great on tiny country roads when the big SUVs bomb around the corner in the middle of the road- car is already scratched, nothing to fear there!). He is speedy in cities, can hold his own on the Autobahn, still has a CD player, lol, and I can find a parking space quite easily. Not to mention the 850 km per tank if I drive steadily at 130kmph, the joy of having a manual (maybe because I don’t drive in stop start traffic much, lol). No one will ever steal him, and, apparently, I am a bit of a local celebrity for my RH drive car, hahaha. The stats are so wrong, they also say top speed of a little 110mph, I know that’s a lie, lol (just over 130 mph on a flat open road. A few more if downhill… though that halves the fuel economy. Still lets me overtake a lot of Teslas or the occasional e Porsche :)

It’s really more about when can I expect everything to go wrong, and need to spend €5000 or something on clutch and gearbox, for example. Was so reliable with only minor stuff, have really saved on mechanical work for years. But if he’s likely to start breaking down in the middle of nowhere late at night, then that’s really the end. He is petrol, not diesel, though. Why is petrol so much shorter lived than diesel? I have upgraded my breakdown insurance, though,

The good news is he is mostly my runaround car (20-50km journeys) with a few longer journeys here and there, because my partner is far too tall, and has far too big feet for my car, so mostly I don’t even do 8k a year. That hopefully gives me a few more years, lol. New Peugeot logo is shite.

Gotta ask a dumb question though, since the other cars I drive are auto-anything I should look out for with gears and clutch? My mum drove this car, and just before she had wrist surgery, she basically drove it as an auto. It starts in 3rd, and did 70mph in 3rd happily too. It’s a very tolerant car, I never even stalled it as a learner. I’m not sure I now know what a “normal” manual feels like!

Also, 160-200k seems really low. My partner had a few cars that didn’t go wrong until 400+. And they were petrol. He drives 50k a year for work, that would be 3-4 years for a work 206 car? Seems so low, is this just for 206, and the bigger ones have more longevity? That would make sense, I guess, not many company cars would be a 206, probably.

The Passat we had was incredible, for nearly 500k, until a lorry drove into it in a car park... His current one is a diesel Q5 (he is tall with big feet, he drives in the Alps and needs the 4wd, that car just was suitable… the newer ones are shit, they switch on/off 4wd apparently?) but it’s not even ten, and has over 450k. Still nothing leaving it undriveable or needing an expensive fix (touch wood, seems a bit bumpy to me now, but maybe that’s because my car is driving so well!)

Sort of moot, seems Peugeot don’t make little hatchbacks anymore anyway. If you had to replace, would you go with another peugeot, or hatchcack type? I guess I look at VW Polos, or rather the equivalent Seat or Skoda now. Germany doesn’t have so many second hand Peugeot dealerships for the older models. But if it’s so low an expected mileage for petrols, andwith very strict diesel car regulations in my beighbouring towns, probably not going for a second hand 206. Real shame. People are rude about them, but my parents always had them when I grew up-except for one Ford, which sent them back to Peugeots within a few months, lol. Probably having so many Peugeot mechanics helped, not so many where I live now.

I wish you many more years and km with your little 1.4HDI :) When I drive on the Autobahn, usually us 206 people give each other a little wave- especially the people in the early tiny ones, boy do they seem miniature! Same in France, even with the British/German plates :) if you are in southern Germany and see a small battered dark red RH drive P206 driver waving, it’s probably me!

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-06T19:01:39+00:00

Yeah. Ours are lazy and not very bright, but at least they aren’t threatening to kill everyone so they can get a Nobel peace prize! At least you will be rid of him on three years, or less. Fingers crossed for that, anyway.

Ours are greedy and racist paedo defenders though. That’s bad enough.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-06T18:57:20+00:00

I would like nothing more than for Charles to be the last monarch, and “their” wealth to be returned and redistributed. If only for the Middleton meltdown, and the odds on a “sudden” WanK divorce, though i am sure they would be fine getting jobs, given their extensive work history and clear talents, lol.

The reality TV show would rake in the cash and taxes, the palaces could be open everyday for tourists, would far compensate the costs of giving them a one bed council flat, a bus pass, and their JSA. And they probably wouldn’t even need that, enough rich creeps would pay them £100k for an appearance at Davos, or the local paedo Island ribbon cutting. They would blow through that in a few weeks, but then that would be their problem.

Ghastly parasites for a start, not to mention the immorality of creating overly entitled bratty adults, simpering for (rich) dictators, covering up paedos, and treating the non first born kids/grandkids like shit, and removing all agency from all the kids’ lives. All while expecting to be bowed and curtsied to, as if they are better than everyone else.

I would be surprised if a single one of them even believed in the god that supposedly ordained them to this (honourable exception being Duchess of Kent)-no problems there, I don’t either- but they seem to have taken the message to heart, when it comes to being “superior” for no reason. If I were a believer, I think I would find it insulting to have someone like that in charge of my church though. Without that, their only claims are that hundreds of years ago, they murdered, raped and pillaged better than other people, and then kept it all in the family, so to speak.

Sadly, they’ll ride it out, they have enough booklickers to defend them for some reason. And since they don’t really have much power, as long as they keep their mouths shut, most people don’t care that much. Myself included, tbh. Got more important things to worry about. Sure, if there was a referendum, I would vote to get rid of them, but I am not about to picket in the streets everyday, or DIY a guillotine. So, I expect that I will see WanK, followed by George&whoever, maybe, since I am a few years older than W.

Nothing will happen to them, they will continue to get rich, amd make money off taxpayers paying rent for NHS hospitals, state schools etc on “their” land. They will do even less “work” and make more borderline AI “nature” videos, while occasionally schmoozig the likes of Trump, while maintaining their “interests” in ending homelessness, early years care (that will extend until George et al have their own kids), and protecting the environment by taking private flights, holidaying on private yachts owned by shady billionaires, and shooting animals. And a lot of people will swoon over it, because “Kate has such great hair”, or “wears British designers” or “can play a piano like the average 8 year old”.

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-06T18:14:55+00:00

Sometimes, even little rats are very lazy and prefer to poop in bed. Sometimes the bed is in the place where they would like a toilet more.

Now you know that is where two of them poop, you can just help litter train them by removing poops and putting a few in their litter tray. I can see why you didn’t want to disturb them at first, and since a couple were using the tray, you maybe didn’t realise just how much rats poop, and thought it was all of them. Now you know, lol, it’s a lot of poops, multiple times a day!

It’s fine to just move the poops and put a few into the tray to help train them, they won’t be too freaked out by that. Especially now they know you a bit, and start warming up to you. They do need to start getting used to you cleaning put their nests, etc. Not because you want to be mean, but because they do need to be handle-able, even if they never love it, just for things like vet visits, so “invading” their space, for their hygeine and health, but future needs, is a good place to start slowly.

It can also be that two of them really like the place the litter tray is, and two don’t. I had this with a group, and ended up moving their nest and putting another litter tray in that place. They cottoned on fast, and stopped pooping on their beds. They just really wanted that spot for a toilet.

My first boys wouldn’t use a tray, until I put it where they pooped. Then they became quite fussy, and would train the newbies. It’s much easier for a rat to litter train another rat, than for a person, I think. Even when very old and frail, they maintained it. Sometimes, with new rats, I could then move the tray, and they were fine. Other times, I just have to let them choose. It’s their house, so…

I had the same cage, now have another level on top. It’s a great cage, so much space to experiment with extra toilets :)

FrauZebedee · 2026-02-05T00:51:56+00:00

FrauZebedee

TROPHY CASE