Cute, Fuzzy and even Friendly

Marty commented that rats may get a bad rap and that he doesn't really think of them as cute and fuzzy pets.  ;)  The first rodent I owned were two female mice.  Unfortunately, I bought them from a pet store where the males and females were housed together.  Do you have any idea how many babies a mouse can have at one time?  We lost count around 20.  Most of them were deformed and she ended up eating them.  (at least I'm assuming as I never saw them again)  Only two survived completely and go figure, they were both males.  They say you're not supposed to house mice together like you would rats but I never had a problem with fights so maybe if they are raised together you won't have as many problems.  At any rate, mice aren't as cuddly as I was hoping.  Basically, they freaked out anytime you did anything other than feed them.  I had wanted rats from the time I was young.  A friend of mine's cousin had one when I was very small and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  And in my child's memory, the thing was sewer rat huge.  I could never convince my mom that rodents would make good pets.  Which is why I bought the mice and then told her about them later.  My first encounter with a rat as an adult was when I was working at the last shelter.  He was a big ole white male and always seemed very tame when with anyone but I was a little leery of him from the get go.  One night, I was asked to go get him from his cage to show him to another volunteer.  I got bit, bad.  I have been bit by horses, birds, rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, cats, dogs and goats and yet the most painful bite I have yet to receive was from that little rat.  He bit me in the webbing between your thumb and index fingers.  After that day, I thought there was no way I would ever own one of the little biting bastards.  A few years went by and my memory (or the pain of it) of that incident faded a bit and I decided what the hell, it can't hurt any worse than the first time and I bought three male rats.  All three were completely untamed and yet allowed me to pick them up and put them in their new cage without biting me.  I have never to this day been bitten by one of my own rats.  My two year old daughter has never been bitten by them either and she can be aggressive at times, yet they've never lashed out at her.  (they just avoid the hell out of her)  They are very intelligent and friendly.  They make a great pet for someone who doesn't have the time for a dog or cat or someone who lives in an apartment.  They are actually said to be as smart as some dogs, although I haven't seen that yet.  When I was a kid, a friend of mine had horses and there were always rats around trying to get into the feed.  We would go in the shed and actually catch them and thankfully, none of them ever bit us.  They were more interested in seeing if we had any leftovers under our fingernails.  Now, being older, I realize that I was tempting my fate with rabies and god only knows what else.  Now onto the pictures of our new (domesticated) rats.  I apologize for the poor picture quality.  Rats have to be the hardest animals to photograph, especially without help.

This is Toby.  The doesn't mind being held and seems sweet and curious.

We haven't named him yet.  He doesn't like to be picked up much at least not yet.  He does however love to be petted, particularly on his face.  He sustained quite a few bites from Tikki today.

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