Good-bye to our Rattie Girl Sammy

Recently we said good-bye to Jen, and now we have said good-bye to our oldest rattie girl, Sammy.  We found her dead on Tuesday.  She had hung on a very long time, a surprise to us, since she had developed large tumours, and toward the end lost all her beautiful blond colour, and became completely white and then eventually a light grey.  But we still remember her earlier days with her pretty silky blond hair, ruby eyes, and her surprising candy-like scent (none of the other rats smelled sweet like she did).  She was a good friend to Jenny, and to my daughter.  We will miss her.

Good-bye to our girl Jen (and our Bear)

2012 will be a very sad year, especially for my daughter, since we will likely say good-bye to all 4 of our ratties by the end of the year.  They are all at end-of-life.  July 1 we said good-bye to Bear.  We were surprised that he was the first to go.  We had expected Sam, our oldest girl, with her enormous tumours and white hair (she used to be a blond), would be the first one to leave us.  But she is still hanging on.

This weekend, we said good-bye to my girl Jen.  We returned Saturday evening from being out all day, and my daughter found her at the bottom of the cage.  She looked like she was near the end.  So we gave her a soft cloth to lie on, and petted her beautiful little black head to comfort her.  She departed peacefully.  It was still sad.  She is now buried under the plum tree, not far from Bear.

I don't think it will be long for poor Sam.  She is not doing well lately.  Hopefully Archie, our youngest boy, will be with us for some time.  It will be sad when they are all gone, but unfortunately due to my allergies (which I didn't know about until we had all 4 rats), we will not be replacing them.

Here are a few photos of Jen.  She was our sweet little curly girl, with the curly whiskers and fur.  She loved to run (she was fast!), and give my daughter kisses.  She was a good friend to Sammy.

 

Here are also some memories of our gentle and huggable, squeezable Bear, who we thought would be a nice companion for Sammy, until we discovered he was a boy.  I have to admit that his dopey dumbo look never melted my heart, but he was a good friend for my daughter, a favourite of her friends, and a good companion for Archie.

 







Rattie Boys Introduction

Our latest pet rat, Archie, is about 3 to 4 weeks old, and is now beginning to show that he is a male.  This is good news, since our poor boy Bear (who we hoped was a girl when we bought him 6 months ago) has been without a companion, and going crazy not being able to visit the 2 girls in the cage next door to him.

I decided that I would let the boys sniff each other through the bars of the cage, and when it seemed friendly, I opened the door and let them sniff each other directly.  Archie fearlessly jumped into Bear's cage, and that was that.  We watched them for some time, and the interactions have been friendly, and unlike the girls (who still tousle often, ending with Sam on top, and Jen squeaking at her), the boys chased and sniffed each other.  In fact, our dear gentle giant Bear seemed a bit afraid of little Archie buzzing about and climbing on his tail.  Often, Bear retreated to the top of his food dish, watching Archie from above.

So I secured the second platform which we picked up at the dollar store.  The original cage was designed for birds, thus the vertical bars and lack of accessories.  We borrowed the ladder from the girls' cage, since they easily climb or jump up to their platform without it.

Bear seemed very interested in this new lower platform.  Archie was interested in everything, it was all new to him.  He figured out how to climb the vertical bars in no time, checking out the lower and Bear's upper platforms with no problem, not even bothering to use the ladder we provided.

It looks like a successful introduction.  Just in case Archie needs a place to retreat, we added a small tunnel which he can fit through but Bear can't.  But I don't think that will be necessary.

Here is a short video clip of the boys exploring together.  We are very happy for Bear that he finally has a friend to play with.

New Baby in the House

My son often surprises me.  Recently he decided that he would like a pet rat of his own.

When we bought our three rats earlier this year (see posting of Sam, Jen, and Bear), he was hesitant to hold them, and we didn't force him.  Now that they are nearly full grown, they are a bit intimidating.  So although he feeds them through the bars of the cage, and touches them, he is scared to hold them.  I offered that he could start with a baby rat, which is not scratchy, and he could get used to it.

Today we went to the pet store, so my son could try holding them.  I didn't expect that he would be ready on the first visit, but he found a rat he liked, held it, and decided to bring it home.  So we did.

He doesn't have a name quite yet, but that will come soon.  But he (at least we're hoping it is a boy, but not sure about it) is very cute.

We hope this latest little rattie is a boy, so Bear (who turned out to be a boy, so is in a second cage on his own) will have a companion.  Sam and Jen also have room in their cage, but since they already have each other, don't really need another friend.  But we're okay either way.  We'll find out in another 4 weeks or so.

Squirrel Attack Makes a Snack of Jack

This post is not for the faint of heart.  Remember that fearless and menacing Jack O'Lantern we set out on Hallowe'en? 

He has met his match.  He has been reduced to a cowering, whimpering, suffering Jack, his eyes and teeth and chunks of his head viciously chewed by the real dark menace - the neighbourhood squirrels.

It's a funny thing about squirrels.  They wave about that big bushy tail, and we all think they are the sweetest thing.  Even I have been known to fall for their sweet mischievous looks.  And judging by how the squirrels shamelessly mobbed us the last time our family took a stroll through the park, many others have succombed to their charms as well.

I have to admit, even when rushing straight towards you, isn't this one cute little creature?

Or look at this little charmer.  Who wouldn't agree that she's adorable?  Even if she's only after your nuts.  Or in my case, my apples, pears, cherries, plums....

On the flip side of the rodent family, there are the rats.  Since we have added 3 rats to our household, we have found them to be friendly, gentle, inquisitive, intelligent, and very affectionate - snuggling and licking and enjoying being handled.  Quiet, clean, and full of fun.  Look at this little face, isn't he a cutie?

Or this little girl?  Wouldn't she just melt your heart?

But when God was handing out tails, and the squirrel picked his big bushy tail, the poor rat picked the wrong one.  The one which makes us gasp, to stop and stare, or to just turn and run in fear.

Poor dear rats.  If only they had picked the bushy tails, I'm sure they would been the hit of the small pet market.  But instead, sadly, most of those born in captivity are destined to be snake food. 

The Price of a Cute Photo

It seemed to be a good idea at the time.  It would make a cute photo, for sure.  I stuck our youngest rat, Jenny, into one of the birdhouses which we recently posted out in the yard, after it sat way too long (more than a year!!) on our kitchen counter.  (Ironically, last year's post talks about hoping to post the houses before the big company BBQ last July, and it is this year's BBQ (this coming weekend) which finally prompted them to be posted out.

After a long wait, I was able to get a wonderful photo of her (him?) poking her nose out the doorway of the bird house (click photo for a slightly larger view):

Of course, it occurred to me only after she was in the house, that the rat with the darkest face was probably not the best choice for this photo.  This photo shows her face a bit better:

Well, getting a rat into a small cozy dark space is easy, but getting one out is a totally different story.  Good thing I was on a lunch break (I work from home on Fridays), and the weather was wonderful for being outside, but I didn't plan to spend half an hour on this photo.  But once Jenny got in there, she didn't want to  come out, even with my attempts to call her, entice her with food (which she bit and then retreated inside to chew), poke her with a stick (she thought that was fun, playing with the stick!).  Finally I had to stand some distance away, wait until she was curious enough to start coming out, and then snatch her up before she changed her mind and went back inside.

My immediate feeling was "I won't do that again!"  But soon I began wondering if I'd be better to try this with Sam, who would be too big to find the house so comfortable, and is better trained to come to my voice, or more easily enticed by an edible "treat"....  I may just get myself into trouble again, but sometimes that's the price of a cute photo!

Here are photos of the other bird houses, mostly set on the posts holding the supports for our 3 espaliered trees.  This one is not too colorful, since we bought it already painted.  We may eventually paint it more within our bright color scheme:

This one is surrounded by the red currant bush which grows between the espaliered asian pear and espaliered european pear:

 

The twin posts holding up my monstrous yellow perennial (I've forgotten if it's a Heliopsis or what) had a bird house from long ago, but it is now joined by a tiki bird feeder:

Girls Camp Out and Ratty Dilemna

My daughter had two friends over last night, and the 4 of us "girls" slept in the tent in the back yard last night.  I didn't sleep well.  Not because the girls didn't settle until close to midnight, and a robin perched in a tree in our yard and started singing loudly at 4:30am.  No, I wasn't sleeping anyhow, I was tossing and turning, and trying unsuccessfully to solve our rat dilemna.

Our first rat, Sam, is a girl.  When we bought her, we had no intention of having more than one, so didn't even think to ask about gender.  Not that it mattered, since the pet store staff may not have gotten it right anyhow.  So when we realized she was a girl, I was a bit anxious, since my friend Andrea, who is a wonderful ratsitter for Sam when we go on vacation, had in the meantime adopted 3 boy rats.  Sadly, her 3 boys caused terrible allergies, and needed to find another home.  But I was still a little anxious about having a girl rat, considering the frequency and size of litters if she were ever to become pregnant.

So when we realized that she would be happier with a companion, we set out to find her a female one.  We ended up with a sweet dumbo eared rat, Berry, and curly "Rex" rat, Jenny.  But last night we realized that Berry is now Bear, a boy rat.  Since we bought him July 6, and I'm guessing he was maybe 3 weeks old, that would make him approximately 5 weeks old.  Although not likely, females are able to become pregnant as early as 5 weeks.  So as I tossed and turned in the tent, I kept trying to work out the age of Berry.  She was probably 2 weeks old when we bought her on July 9, so she is about 3 weeks old now. Assuming she's a girl, at what point is it no longer "safe" to have Bear and Jenny together in the hamster cage?  Probably best if we sort out this living arrangement within the next week or so, just to be sure.

Bear may almost be big enough (that he can't squeeze out) to join Sam in the big cage, but that is no longer an option for us.  Jenny is probably still too little to join Sam.  But can we leave her that long with Bear, or need a separate hamster cage for her?  But then I end up with 3 rats in 3 cages, with no companions for any of them!

My first reaction last night was that clearly Bear had to find another home, and soon.  But then as I tossed and turned, I wondered, what if Jenny was actually Jimmy, a boy, too?  Even then, I couldn't bear to give him away, too.  In which case I should have kept Bear, and then we'd have 2 boys, would could be good friends, and poor Sam, who is still without a companion.  Two large rat cages in our kitchen.  Make sure we don't let the boys and girls out at the same time, but otherwise we could still play with them whenever we wanted.

Without being clear on Jenny vs Jimmy, it is hard to know what cage to buy next, or whether to start advertising to find a home for Bear.  So when the robin started singing at 4:30am, I took the opportunity to step out of the tent to scare it to a more distant tree, and search the internet for some answers.

I found many pages on "sexing rats", and the best one was this one.  But without being able to hold her side by side against similar aged rats, I am still not sure which of the photos more closely match our dear Jenny.  So even though I turned her over a number of times to look at her, I couldn't be sure one way or the other.  But I do know that I can't trust that the pet store staff thought she was female.  They thought the same of Bear.

So then I found myself reading about curly haired or "Rex" rats, with mixed result.  Although Jenny's curly whiskers will always be curly, there may be various moults and regrowths of her curly hair which may not be as curly as I had hoped.  I learned also that her colouration is actually called "bareback" instead of "hooded", since she  has the "hood" part but doesn't have the stripe running down her spine.

Then there is the sneezing.  Both Bear and Jenny sneeze a fair amount, even though they are in the recommended aspen bedding, and there are no obvious reasons why they would have allergies.  Sam, on the other hand, has never sneezed, at least not that we've noticed.  But my reading didn't answer my questions, and even the people who went to their vets didn't seem to get clear answers why their rats were sneezing when they didn't exhibit other signs of sickness.

So finally, I ended up on Craigslist, searching for another large rat cage.  Rather than a second hamster cage, this way we'd be prepared long term for whatever decision we end up making.  I found a good one at a good price, and emailed the owner about it, but just need to wait until I can follow up, since it is only 6:25am.

The 3 campers are awake now, and in the house.  They all have freshly painted fingernails and toenails.  My son just came downstairs also.  So I guess that's it for any attempts at sleeping.  I'll catch up another night.

Third and Final Ratty Girl: Jenny

When my daugher picked out Sam some 3 months ago, I found a beautiful little hooded (black head, white body) rat with curly hair.  The curly hair is really different.  (It's apparently only the occasional rat that comes out curly, and none of the adult rats there seem to have curly hair.)  But we only wanted one rat at the time, so we brought home our beautiful Sammy:

Since then, we have realized that it was not fair to Sam to leave her alone, and I set out to find another curly haired rat.  We've stopped in at the pet store a few times, without success.  Then on Monday, I found my girl.  But she was still too small to remove from her mom.  So I told the ladies at the pet store that I would be back Friday, and take her if she was ready.

At the same time, my daughter found the little dumbo eared girl, which she adored, and wanted as well.  So we ended up returning for her on Tuesday.  She is called Berry. 

Then on Friday, we returned for my little girl, Jenny.  She is the most adorable rat I've seen, with her curly hair - and even curly whiskers!

Now that we have the 3 girls, I think we are done.  Our household is complete now.

Berry and Jenny are too small to join Sam in her cage (they could squeeze between the bars), and after some initial skirmishes between Berry and Jenny, we had all 3 in separate cages for a couple of days.  Then this morning, I moved Jenny into Berry's (hamster) cage, because she had dumped over her small water dish (in a bottle cap) in her tiny cage (which is actually a carry-cage), and in the larger cage with Berry, she would have a more consistent supply of food & water.

There were a few tense moments, just before we headed to church this morning, watching them pouncing and rolling on each other, some foot and tail biting, and some squeaking.  But by the time we had returned, they were both together in their makeshift hammock formed by a sock with the toe cut out.  So I think they should be good now.  When the two get bigger, they will join Sam in the multilevel cage.

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.

Creatures in the Garden : Centipedes, Cats, Rats

My son is becoming a great naturalist and garden buddy.  On the weekend, he found a really cool centipede (it turns out it is a millipede - see comments section) in the garden.  I don't remember ever seeing this one before:

The day after he spotted it, I was weeding in the upper corner of my yard among the monarda patch, and was surprised to discover the same type of centipede - perhaps even the same one.  This evening, I was again out weeding, this time in my new garden path area, and found that centipede again.  I called down to David, who was in the lower yard, and he said he also had one down there, and proudly carried it on his shovel to show it to me.  So there are at least two of this gorgeous creature in my yard.  I hope to see more of them!

Then after letting the centipede go, he proceeded to pick out the grasses and weeds growing between the concrete blocks of our outdoor chess board. Later he took the hose on "jet" setting, and blasted more weeds out of the cracks.  What a fine garden helper he is growing to be.

My daughter April is less inclined to anything in the garden. But she came out and visited me for a while, with her pet rat, Sam. I like this photo of them, sitting in the new garden path area.  April is excited to have "flip flops" this year (I previously frowned on such "dangerous" footwear but she's now old enough to handle them), so she changes into them at every opportunity.

Speaking of the new garden area, there is much weeding (when we cleared the area, the horsetails invaded with ferocity!), but I just love looking at it, weeding it, sitting on our new granite bench, and generally admiring that area. It will be even more magical when we get the path lighting connected up. I'm waiting for my landscaper to come and help with that. He's already picked up the transformer, and just needs to come and connect up the low-voltage lights which I already plunked out along the path months ago.

We had a cat in our garden earlier this evening. I caught a photo of it before my son opened the sliding door, and it darted away. When we first built our house (almost 6 years ago now) we regularly had cats prowling through our yard, presumably hunting, even after we fenced it in. I'm glad to still see the occasional cat.

The rain today helped thin our small peach tree, as evidenced by the few fuzzy balls below the tree this evening. Thankfully, the two largest fuzz-balls are still holding on. I'm excited at the prospect of tasting a peach this year - if the rain or squirrels don't remove them all first.

I took some photos of the bumblebees buzzing around in the wild roses which are blooming in the upper yard. One particular sequence of photos turned out pretty well, I think. But at midnight, I'm a bit too tired to create a slideshow. I'll try to create and post it another night.

Update on Rat and Sticks

I haven't taken very many photos of our pet rat, Sam, recently, since when we have her out, she is usually moving very fast, getting into mischief, and is often climbing on me.  She is growing nicely, and I wish we could get a photo of her in our hands, for comparison with her photo in our hands when she was just itty-bitty.

I try to let her out in the evenings when I'm on the computer, and she runs freely on our desks.  She has an annoying habit of running across the keyboard, clicking keys randomly with each step, and she pees on my mouse EVERY time she passes by, which is very often.  I understand that it's a sign of affection, of comfort, perhaps of marking her familiar territory, but I find this just too annoying, so I hope she will grow out of this habit.

She has found herself a place to create a part-time nest, under some file folder racks.  She collects tissues (the ones I use to wipe up her pee, so I guess that's encouraging her habit too), and occasionally I see her running by with a paper clip or other small object, to carry under there with her.  She gets pretty cozy in there, and it is a challenge to lure her out when it's time to put her back in the cage.

We have bought her a larger cage, which is multilevel so she can climb.  We have come to realize that she would really benefit from having a friend.  I hope to contact the pet store soon.  When we bought Sam, who was a beautiful gold/beige colour, I was really attracted to a black and white curly-haired baby rat.  So I am hoping there is a chance a few more curly haired ones will be born, and if so, I would be happy to wait for one of those.  And yes, I'm not so naive that I don't know that most of the rats born there are destined to be a meal for a pet snake, but that's life, and I will still buy my curly-haired baby rat from them.

My friend Andrea, who has prior experience with rats, has been a wonderful help with Sam, and has provided a second home to Sam when we go on vacation.   She has posted photos of Sam on her blog, "Rats Make Great Pets", and since sadly it didn't work out with her 3 boy rats, I think we'll be seeing a lot more about Sam on Andrea's blog in future.

As for our stick bug colony, they are doing fine, and still multiplying.  I have no large egg-laying females at the moment, but some of the eggs stuck to the top and back of the cage must still be hatching, since I have all sizes of walking sticks, including some hatchlings.  I may have finally squished that spider that was hiding in the back corner of the cage, and taking an occasional stick bug.  At least I haven't seen him recently.

I did a thorough clean of the cage today (instead of just replacing individual blackberry branches, as I usually do), so I also performed a count while I was transferring the stick bugs back in.  I have 37.  Wow.  Here is a photo of the cage.  This time I also added a branch of salmonberry, and they took to it fine, just like the blackberry.  I guess that's an acceptable "bramble" for them.  Probably raspberries would work, too, but I don't plan to offer any of those - I don't have any to spare.

Click here for previous posts about the walking stick bugs.

Sam and the Terrible Twos?

I knew it would be interesting when we chose a baby rat as a pet one week ago, but I didn't realize how interesting, or challenging.  Sam has overnight gone from being a sleepy little baby, content to sleep on our hand for hours (or lick our hand, as in the photo below), to being lightning fast and exhibiting the stubbornness and independence of a two-year old.

It happened on the weekend.  I think it was Sunday that I opened her cage to let her crawl out onto my hand, and as I reached behind her to assist her, she turned on my finger.  She didn't bite, but I could feel it was teeth, not her little pink nose, which touched me.  Then she didn't want to stay in my hands, so I let her out in the empty livingroom, and placed lots of boxes and crumpled papers and balls and such around for her to explore.  I touched her every so often, just so she wouldn't forget me, and think she was running completely free.  But when I went to catch her to return her to her cage, she turned on my hand again.  Again no biting, but she was not going willingly.

When I brought her to her cage, she jumped in, and then promptly jumped back out again.  I placed her back in, but she was climbing all over the walls, so I tied a string with ends which hung down almost to the floor of the cage.  She attacked it with enthusiasm, pulling and climbing it.

Yesterday, she was again restless, despite a number of excursions out of the cage, and her usual toilet rolls and other objects in her cage to play with.  (Her favourite object is a little dome-shaped sleeping box which I created from an old file folder, which she has plugged up with paper towelling.  When she's not running about, she disappears into it, and probably sleeps there.)  So I threaded a number of Cheerios onto a string, and hung it hammock-like from the top of the cage, so that it is reachable from the ground.  I see today that she has been chewing off the Cheerios, only 1/3 of them remain.

Today she did some more exploring and running in the living room, and I made sure I caught her several times to let her know I was still there.  Finally, I gave her my pullover sweater, which she crawled in for probably an hour, next to me while I worked / surfed on the computer.  When she came near the opening of a sleeve or neck, I pulled back the sweater and said "Hi Sam", to which she would dart back inside.  When it came time to pull her out, it was a small challenge to find her in there, and catch her again.

Wow, I didn't know it would be so interesting.  She seems too young to be "trained" to come when called, or to know to return to her cage (it is still on a stand, so not even a possibility), but seems too old to be content with small paper rolls and other toys, and the confines of her hamster cage.  This is an interesting stage.  I hope it doesn't last long.

Easter Weekend and More Photos of Sam

Happy Easter everyone!  I had intended to draw something Easter-related to post on my blog, but didn't get to it.  So instead I am posting a beautiful Easter egg (the red one in the photo) which was created by my 11-year-old daughter at school, using the Ukrainian egg decorating techniques.

I think she did a very impressive job, and she tells me that the second egg, which unfortunately was not finished in time to bring it home for Easter, was even better.

This weekend I am thankful for the opportunity to relax, spend time with the family, and sleep in!  With math and/or soccer on Saturdays, and church on Sundays, I can't remember the last time I was able to sleep without an alarm, and wake up as late as I wanted to.  With activities cancelled this weekend, and the day off work Friday, I was able to sleep in two days in a row!  It was a very special treat for me.

Also a treat was seeing my Nana, visiting from the Okanagan area of BC, who is nearing her 92nd birthday.  She is staying with my parents, and all 3 of them visited for dinner this evening.  Since the rain held off until later in the evening, I was able to take her on a tour through my yard.  On left, she is with my mom, next to my new flowering cherry (Prunus "Snofozam" or "Snow Fountains"). 

On the right is a photo of 4 generations of the "girls" - pretty special.

I am trying to hold back on my photos of Sam, and leave the blogging of our new pet rat to my daughter, but I can't resist posting 2 photos from today, from within a paper bag.

Since it happens to be a Saturday, I am also posting for the first time on Camera Critters - check them out for other weekly critter shots.

Meet Sam, the Newest Member of our Household

On Tuesday, I took my daughter (and son) to the pet store to look for a replacement hamster, since her dear Hammy died the previous Wednesday, at almost 3 years old.  We played a bit with the hamsters, but couldn't decide on any, and whether we wanted one of the teddy bear ones (to me, they looked messy) or a dwarf hamster, which the store would need to order in for us.

Then before we knew it, we were each holding a baby rat, and actually quite taken by them.  I liked one which was part mostly brown, with a white diamond on his forehead, and some other white patches, and distinctly curly hair - and curly whiskers.  My daughter immediately liked a little beige one, mainly because it climbed into the crook of her arm and promptly fell asleep.

I remember a number of years ago, visiting a friend of a friend, who had 3 rats in her apartment.  They roamed freely, were litter trained, and came when she called them by name.  I was impressed by that, and by how they climbed on her shoulder or sat next to her on the sofa.  Then about a year ago, we saw a teenager with big messy hair at a Quiznos, and as she stood in the lineup ordering her sandwich, a rat peeked out from behind her hair from the hood of her hoodie.  That intrigued me.

Then a while back, I saw a TV documentary about rats, and how they communicate and learn and it was quite impressive how they are quite a bit more intelligent than mice or other small rodents.  At the pet store, the hamsters and other creatures ran around in their cages, oblivious to us.  But when I lifted the lid on a container holding some adult rats, they all looked up at me, and stared at me intently until I replaced the lid.

Then we were holding this adorable little baby, so soft and tiny, with such big feet.  Suddenly it all caming rushing together, that this could be my daughter's ideal pet.  Unlike a hamster, it can learn to be her friend, and learn to ride in her hoodie, and go places with us.  Unlike a puppy, it is very quiet. 

After bringing Sam home, I've been reading intently about care and diet and behaviour of pet rats, and I am more and more convinced that this is the ideal pet.  I've even read that since they are social animals, it is better to have 2 or more (of the same gender, since they can become pregnant as early as 5 weeks old, and bear up to 7 litters per year of 8 to 22 babies each!!).  So in my more crazy moments, I wonder if we should buy a second one while we're at it.  We'll see how it goes.

My daughter April, who is 11 years old, has started a blog about Sam.  I hope you will stop by and encourage her.