Another Girl in the (Ratty) House

...or at least we sure hope she's a girl!  Since we are not looking to breed more rats!

Do you remember our rat, Sam, which we brought home 3 months ago?  She's a sweet little girl, and has added lots of enjoyment to our family life.  We haven't taken nearly enough photos of her, since she's a very active girl, and is hard to catch on camera.  The photo on the top right is when we first brought her home (click for a larger view):

We have realized for a while now that she needs a ratty friend, especially since she's awake most of the night, while we're sleeping.  Then we're away most of the day, at work/school, so she needs more socializing.  Last night we went to the pet store, to pick out another girl, and I found one I adore, but she is still too young to remove from her mother.  We hope to return on Friday or on the weekend, to bring her home.

In the meantime, my daughter held a dear little tan Norwegian hooded rat with dumbo ears, and instantly bonded with her.  I resisted, since it was my turn to pick a rat, and I had already picked one.  But on the way home, I realized that we wanted this one also, and we really could accomodate 3 rats.  So I told my daughter that if she was still there Friday when we returned, we'd get her also.  But by this evening, we were running back to the store to pick her up.  We would have been very disappointed if she was sold in the meantime.

Here she is, my daughter has named her "Berry" (named in honour of "Bear", another dumbo rat which my friend Andrea had for only a short time, before she sadly discovered that she was allergic and couldn't keep her 3 boys - we still don't know why, since Sam doesn't bother her at all).  In all the excitement tonight, and trying to introduce her to Sam, we didn't get any good photos, but here are a few we managed to capture:

So far, the introduction went well.  They sniffed each other a bit, but largely ignored each other.  So we let Berry climb around in Sam's cage for a while with Sam removed, and then let Sam back in.  A few times, Berry chased Sam, and it looked like she was hoping Sam would be her mommy, but Sam wouldn't have it.  Berry made herself comfortable inside Sam's usual tissue box, so Sam found her way into the other tissue box, and mostly retreated into her hammock.  We made popcorn to celebrate the new girl in the house, and both enjoyed eating in their separate areas.  Once Berry grows up a bit, she will be a good friend for Sam, I'm sure of it.

Stay tuned for my new rat coming soon.  I can hardly wait to bring her home.  Right now she's pretty tiny, and hasn't opened her eyes yet.  She still needs her mommy.