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RATFEST PHOTOS!
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2004 Roster
View the 2004 Photos!
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* = Both Days
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* = Saturday Only
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* = Sunday Only
1. *Cathy - Gales Ferry, CT
2. *Beth L. - Long Island, NY
3. *Joanne "Bella" Hodges - Fern Park, FL
4. *JoAnna - Yonkers, NY / Worcester, MA
5. *Kim S. - Dover, NJ / Westborough, MA
6. *Cindy S. - Bayside, NY
7. *Jane A. - Brooklyn, NY
8. *Chuck L. - Chino Hills, CA
9. *Chris C. - Vernon, CT
10. *Raquel - NYC
11. *Chris V. - Danbury, CT
12. *Tammy S. - Washington D.C.
13. *Sue - Voluntown, CT
14. *Cindy - NYC
15. *Jay E. - Hartford, CT
16. *Dr. Ann - Andover, MA
17. *Ben - Andover, MA
18. *Melissa P. - Rochester, NY
19. *Mary Z. - Rochester, NY
20. *Linda
21. *Eric
22. *Jessica L. - Manchester, NH
23. *June H. - Durham, ME
24. *Lydia - NJ
25. *Charlotte - MI
26. *Brad- MI
27. *Amanda - MI
28. *Matthew- MI
29. *Jenni - MI
30. *Allison - CT
31. *Suzanne L. - New Britain, CT
32. *Elle - Hamden, CT
33. *Jim - Hamden, CT
34. *Laurey B. - Uxbridge, MA
35. *Deirdre - Auburn, MA
36. *Typhani - Dracut, MA
37. *Amy - Dracut, MA
38. *Thomas Pluck (Galoot)
39. *Linda - NY
2004 Recap
Saturday - August 7
RatFesters were greeted by JoAnna's RatFest banner, lots of prizes, tons of food and lots of rat merchandise in the RatFest Mall. Saturday got off to a slow start as there was a ton of traffic on the highway, but it was a fun filled day nonetheless! As everyone trickled in there was a lot of chatting about rats and everything else under the sun. When everyone finally arrived, we did introductions and got to know a little bit about everyone. We had SO many new RatFesters!
Then on to the always fun Yankee Gift Swap complete with LOTS of stealing! In past years most people have been too polite to do much stealing -- but NOT THIS YEAR! This was one of the most vicious Gift Swaps! There were a couple of gifts that were stolen over and over and OVER again... such as the infamous Rat First Aid Box! It really was funny and we laughed ourselves silly. I do hope that in the end everyone was happy with what they got!
After everyone safely stashed their Yankee Gift Swap gifts away, it was time for more socializing with our fellow RatFesters to talk RATS! We also had time to peruse the RatFest Mall, a section of Cathy's deck packed with tables filled with rat merchandise to buy. There was Kim's Ark's table brimming with colorful hammocks, rat food, bedding, and other rat supplies, Charlotte's Whimsical Wear Embriodery, Emily's fun rat stuff to benefit Kim's Ark, June's wonderful rat pillows, unique rat t-shirts, and cute notecards. The RatFest Mall also featured the RatFest Yard Sale table in which RatFesters were able to sell unwanted rat supplies.
Next we had a Ratrivia game. All of the RatFesters were sent around Cathy's house and backyard looking for hidden buttons. After everyone found one we sat around Cathy's deck and were asked trivia questions which corresponded with the button color. The trivia questions were suggested from rat lovers around the world. The Grand Prize Question was "Which of Cathy's rats is the cutest?" LOL! Of course there was no wrong answer so Jessica and Deon (who drew that question at random) won the Grand Prize! The Grand Prize was a box full of great things selected from all the great donated prizes we recieved this year.
After our yummy dinner, an amazing array of all sorts of foods, we had the voting for the RatFest Photo Contest! There were 75 entries this year and as always it was SO hard with all those adorable pictures!
Next we had the RatFest Raffle. We had 7 items for raffle -- 2 gift certificates from Charlotte's Whimsical Wear Embroidery, an adorable musical Christmas stocking with two rats on it, a tiny cloisonne tea pot with painted rats on it, a Foffer set from Andrea, some really cute rattie furniture donated by Martin's cages, and a small cage, complete with bedding, hammock, food dish and water bottle, perfect to use for transports, also donated by Martin's cages. I don't remember who won what, except that Vicky won the cage and she was THRILLED!
RatFesters were also treated to three of Melissa's wonderful demonstrations. The first demonstration was an informal demo on how to do a Rattie Heimlich and then she followed it with a demo on giving a Sub Q injection. Spark was the brave volunteer...well, maybe not so brave! Later, Melissa gave a really great presentation how to 'Wrap a Rat' to keep them from chewing on stitches. It was NOT easy for her to do -- as she explained, most of the time when this is done the rat is still groggy from anesthesia. Viv wasn't. Viv was as squirmy as a girl can get and yet Melissa managed to wrap her up! It was very interesting and informative.
We took a break to let people refuel and get their energy up for the Rationary
game. We also finally cut into the RatFest Cake made by JoAnna.
A lot of people had gone home by now but it was time for the traditional game of Rationary! Jessica aka the Alpha Rat ran the game. The teams were the
'Dumbos' and 'Capt. Smegma (Melissa) and the Penis Plugs,' which won in a landslide victory!
It was finally time for the 'Closing Ceremony.' We had 3
fountain type fireworks and sparklers and we set them off as we played 'Proud
to be an American' by Lee Greenwood. Everyone sang along and it was a nice
way to end the day.
Sunday- August 8
Sunday morning the remaining 21 RatFesters gathered at Cathy's again and headed over to our annual breakfast pancake place to eat. As always a yummy and fun time dominating half of the restaurant :)
After breakfast we all came back to the house and had a really fun
afternoon of scrapbooking, led by Chris. Special thanks to Charlotte for bringing her multitude of scrapbooking supplies! Everyone from the scrapbooking experts to the beginners made such great pages! It was an awesome and creative way to spend the afternoon.
Eventually people had to leave and RatFest had to come to an end... It was a great weekend and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Plus we had the best turnout yet - a total of 39 RatFesters!
Contact Cathy for more information.