Pawdios

 
Rat-tastic greetings, my fellow readers.
 
Nearly five years have passed since the launch of Bob’s Blogs: The Many Adventures of Bob the Rat, and wow, has it had an amazing scuttle – er, run!
 
You may have noticed a pawcity of blogs in recent months; that’s because my squeak-to-English translator (a.k.a. the ghostwriter of Bob’s Blogs) has been working at an outside job six days a week – half of that time while also finishing a bachelor’s degree in journalism – for the better part of a year. She and I have no lack of ideas for the blog, but we do lack time and energy. She feels she hasn’t had the energy to give Bob’s Blogs what it needs for many months now. Therefore it is with great difficulty that we have decided – for now – to squeak farewell to Bob’s Blogs.
 
These past five years have been a transformative experience for the both of us. The purpose of Bob’s Blogs – supplying material to help my human land employment in her profession as a writer – was fulfilled many times over. We became better and more creative than we ever knew we could be, and stretched ourselves and our talents in ways we never believed were possible.
 
We want to express our gratitude to those of you we have met along the way. Many were friends and family who supported us in this, one of my human’s quirkier projects. Please know that your support carried her through many times of darkness and doubt. Others of you are friends we have picked up along the way, and for that, we squeak the hugest THANK YOU of all. It’s one thing when your mom likes your writing; it’s another when a complete stranger praises it. (No offense, Mom!)
 
I don’t know what the future holds for Bob’s Blogs. My human has a list of ideas that could last Bob’s Blogs for at least another five years easily! We also have dreams of a stand-alone “Bob the Rat” website (and maybe even an app) as well as a hard-bound book based in part on the blog. So you see (or perhaps smell, if you’re sight-limited like me), our end here is not due to lack of ideas, just energy and time. I’m certain we both would love to fulfill these. However, we may never get to do so (who knows what the future holds?), in which case we are unabashedly proud of what we have accomplished. On a personal note, I can squeak that while I have loved being “Bob the Rat” the entity, I’m looking forward to returning to just being Bob.
 
No matter what happens, thank you from the bottom of my little ratty heart for your love, dedication, and encouragement on this rat-tastic adventure. Keep your teeth to the cheese wheel (or is that your nose to the grindstone?), and never be afraid to keep it squeak!
 
Pawdios,

Bob

Confurence

 
Yesterday I attended a history confurence in sunny Panama City Beach, Florida. (You may remember me squeaking about my favorite PCB hole-in-the-wall, Margarataville, in a previous blog.) The confurence was interesting – as interesting as confurences can be on a sunny Saturday afternoon just miles off the beach (which is, to squeak, not very). Nonetheless, I had a pretty good time.
 
The humans presented info on a diverse array of topics: everything from attitudes in the World War II military to breaking the color line in baseball. But I must admit, my favorite squeaker – er, speaker – told us all about the history of cheese.
 
Things were going along swimmingly, in fact, until I got up to present my topic, the Bubonic Plague, and promptly cleaned out the room! It seems the humans were afraid I was squeaking from first-paw experience. I suppose that’s what happens when you let the rat out of the bag.
 
Keepin’ it squeak,
Bob

   
(Congratulations to my human, Sandra McGill, on her second-place win at the 2015 American Journalism Historians Association Southeast Symposium!)

Cake and Mice Cream

 
Today my human family’s cat – a.k.a. my arch nemesis – celebrated his thirteenth birthday. The teenager part is new, but even the bipeds won’t dispute that he’s been moody his whole life!
 
Now that he’s a teen, he might start using slang terms to accompany his nonchalant cattitude. (I recently learned from Buzzfeed that phrases like “swag money” and “turnt” are uber-pawpular.) But if things go as I suspect, he’ll stick to his one-meow vocabulary. After all, he’s never shared my verbosity!
 
Fate of all fates, the human who translates my rat squeaks into English for this blog insisted that I play mice – er, nice – with the critter. But as you can see from the photo above, as soon as her back was turned, he took a swipe at me! I think he was confusing me with his birthday present, making plans to turn me into a rat party hat.
 
I drew the line, though, when it came time to celebrate. For while it’s easy to guess what my favorite birthday treat is (cheesecake, of course), it’s likewise not difficult to surmise his. Still stumped? Check out this blog’s title.
 
Keepin’ it squeak,
Bob

Fleaturn to the Blue

 
 
Several years ago, now, I once blogged abou’
A day that was crystalline blue;
When did my red eyes see sapphire skies –
What a view, I’m squeaking to you.
 
Oh that day, what a thrill! After long winter chill,
Mother Earth gave us something so grand;
I had to go out, had to scamper about,
On the dirt I just had to stand.
 
Today’s like that day: the winter’s at bay,
A blast from the past indeed;
The cold rain is all done – I can now see the sun!
Of this clime I’ve had very great need.
 
On this you can count: I can run up a mount!
Or take on and wrestle a cat;
Even I want to purr when sun’s on my fur,
Now what do you think about that?!
 
With weather like this, I would sure be remiss
If inside I stayed to write;
So despite the wind, I took and I penned
This blog on a mountaintop site.
 
I do hope your year is much filled with cheer,
And blue days like this abound;
Let us all now delight when weather is bright,
In the sky and right here on the ground!
 
Keepin’ it squeak,

Bob