Ana, The Accidental Rat

[Mania]

Several months ago, my husband and I were in the local PetSmart to buy mealworms and crickets. Next to the cricket bin, sitting hunched all alone in a small bird cage, was a young rat. Outside her cage was a torn piece of cardboard with the word "FREE" hand-written in black marker.

When the cricket girl (a very pleasant young woman who doesn't seem to mind me calling her the cricket girl) came out of the back room, I asked her, "What's up with the rat?"

"She lost half her tail in an accident, and now we can't sell her," she answered.

"Can I see her?"

"Sure!"

She pulled the young rat out of the cage. More than half her tail was gone and the blunt end was raw and only partially scabbed over.

"Has she seen a vet?" I asked, handing the rat to my husband.

"Yes ..." The cricket girl trailed off. Then "Of course!" she added, much more forcefully.

I knew we'd have to take this rat to our own vet and that depending on where the break had occurred she might lose more of her tail. She might also have an infection -- the way she was sitting hunched up when we came in wasn't a good sign. Taking her home would be expensive ... and she might die anyway.

I shook my head, and turned to my husband to retrieve the rat and hand her back. He was standing contorted, petting the flank of the rat hidden under his shirt collar with one hand while simultaneously trying to peer at her too-close-up nose and whiskers where they stuck out the front. He had a big smile on his face, and the rat was considerably more bright-eyed and leaning up against his hand for comfort.

I sighed.

Later that day we named her Ana "The Rat" Conda because of the way she weaves her head side to side when she is trying to see things better. (As a partial albino, her eyesight is really awful. And please note that anacondas don't usually do a head-weaving behavior like that, but I can't really talk Eric out of these things.)

[Ryno]

Aw! Touching story. I've never had many pets myself, especially no rodents, heh. Some family of mine has a phobia for them.

[Raze]

She's got a lighter toned "hood" than either of my two rats did.

I'm not sure if you're that versed in rats or not, but is it true what they say about the females being easier to manage than males? She certainly seems tamer than mine did at first, but I don't know how recently that was taken.

[Spiritchan]

Females are more hyper, active, and playful. They like to roam around and explore, and are tons of fun.
Males are more lazy, and are perfect if you want your pet to sit on your lap while you watch movies.

Both genders are "easy to take care of" (as far as pets go), and they both (if properly cared for) are happy to see you when you enter the room, just like a dog is. They can be trained to do any number of things, from coming when called to bringing you slippers (one at a time).

It's really whichever behavior you want. Playful and active, or sweet and lazy.
The behavior difference has been proven in labs. It has also been proven by ownership. :3


(I miss my rats)
Ana is super-cute, by the way - love her coat.

[Storytime]

She's really quite beautiful- makes me miss my own. And with a story like that how could you not keep her!?

[Mania]

Partially albino is not at all the correct term for her color, by the way, but as I understand it she would have a normal dark-brown hood except that she's low (but not missing) one of the colors. Hypo-melanistic, maybe?

Ana is extremely cautious about going new places -- we think perhaps because of her bad eyesight. But she does like to explore. So she'll strike out in one direction, go perhaps half a body-length past where she already knows, sniff cautiously, then dash back to her house to 'reset'. And then do the whole thing again, over and over. (Margaret, whom I'll post about as soon as I have a picture, is much more direct in her explorations.)

Ana also likes to 'ride the bus' -- she climbs up on my husband's shoulder and leans hard in the direction she wants to go. He'll walk around the house with her like that, her nose going frantically, until she starts leaning hard towards her cage. Sometimes he'll sit on the couch or on a bed or something and she'll venture down to explore. In that case, his lap is her reset point. When she's done, she'll climb back up on his shoulder and lean for home. (That's the 'home bus': "Ana, are you ready for the home bus? We need to get back to work!")

As you can see, we spend an awful lot of time watching Ana.

My husband kept two male rats about ten years ago. We knew less about rats then, though: we chose them poorly, didn't properly recognize the signs of poor health, chose a bad vet for small animals, and lost one after a few months to a respiratory infection and the other about a year later. (We still harbor a lot of regret about the entire thing. Poor rats.) Given all of that, I don't believe their behavior was typical of healthy male rats. Our choice of a female this time was entirely ... accidental.

[Maqueda]

I used to work at a pet store in Bloomington, MN. When I started working there, there were two rats currently offered for sale. One was a young albino female, who had been a "lab rat" for one of the other girls working there, while she went to Vet Tech school. Apparently she and the other rats whom she'd lived with at the lab were specifically bred not to have a tendency for cancer. The other rat was a large "hairless" male we called Pinky.

Pinky was one of those animals that whenever people saw him, they'd go "Ohmigad, he's hideous!" (Many would also comment on the ginormous size of his boy parts, since he had no hair to cover them up - it was quite funny!) And then they'd reach out to pet him, find that he was extremely soft to the touch, and then they'd experience his incredibly loving and gentle demeanor. He finally went home with a lady who'd been coming in for quite some time and debating whether or not she had room for him at home with all her other babies.

The other rat ended up coming home with me, eventually, and I named her Beanie. She was certainly sweet and good-natured, but definitely more bold and assertive in her interactions with humans than Pinky ever was. The only time she ever bit me was a tiny nip on the ear when she wanted her banana-yogurt crunchy treat. She was intelligent, clean, and had a quirky personality that was immediately obvious to any who met her. She died of old age (I hope..) at around 2 1/2 years.

Rats are certainly much better pets than most people who've never had one assume they are. Though I miss my Beanie, I don't think I'll ever have another rodent pet. They just live for such a relatively short time and I get so attached to my babies that it's hard for me to handle. Selfish reason? Perhaps, but I still have fond memories of my Beanie baby.

Your Ana is precious, Mania! I hope you and your husband can enjoy her company for a long time to come.

[Emowin]

We rarely choose our pets, it is our pets who choose us. They like to make us think that we did the chosing but they really did it. Your ratty is adorable she looks like my old boy Seth, he liked to go on trips with me. He would hide in the collar of my shirt and his tail would stay hidden in my hair most of the time no one knew he was there, every now and then his tail would stick out and some one would ask about it, when I told them about it then they would eather laugh or get grossed out. He even stayed hidden in the grocery store serounded by food. I bread rats at one time, dumbos mostly, but I used my sisters hairless as a stud from time to time. Allas I developed an allergy to them and could no longer have rodent pets. So I kept all of my breeding adults untill they passed away of old age (Seth was 4 when he died), and sold my babys to a pet store (one that did NOT sell them for snake food) I miss my babys sooo much, it warms my heart that some one would put the time and money into saving the life of a "smelly rodent". lol

[Jangalian]

I had a snake, a ball python, and one of his 'lunches' ended up being a young rat. For some reason or another, he refused to eat it, so I ended up with a pet rat for a while of in-determined sex. I think it was female, so I named her Daisy, cause she had white spots on her head and shoulders that looked like flowers. =) She was very sweet; she liked licking my ear when she sat on my shoulder. I came home one day and she was cold and stiff, so I never had an idea exactly why she died, but I loved her when she was alive.

I don't have the python any more, but I've been thinking of getting another rat. <3

[Jadvya]

She's precious! Looks just like my old rat Schrodinger. He was a kissy boy.

My sister, who is a major rat lover, once adopted a female rat who was going to have been fed to a hawk. She was a pretty dark gray with white on her belly, and she was missing her whole tail from being attacked by said hawk, not to mention she was a bit paranoid and prone to biting from her trauma. We named her Eeyore and we loved her, crazy as she was, and I miss her.

[Karathyriel]

*sigh*

So reminds me of Paul, the rat I once had. He was male and not difficult to handle.

I went with me everywhere I went, always sitting on my shoulder, making a bulge beneath my jacket. Oh man, he even had his own glass in my local bar (water for him, of course) and everyone knew him, so as soon as we arrived there and Pat, the barkeeper made my first drink, he alsways ran down the bar, saying hello to everyone and checking out who was there.

Now that I read this, I reeally start to miss him and I can hardly control keep myself from buying another one...

[Noba]

Ana is very cute!
I had two female pet rats in the past, and they were wonderful! I was amazed at how social and playful they were, and they never bit me from meanness(much unlike hamsters i had in childhood!). One was agouti with a white belly, the other was your typical "mutt" of a rat, with white and black patches. I would someday love to have rats again, but their poor health is difficult to handle. My ratties lived around 2 years, Zoe passed away of her recurring respiratory infections (and possibly her undiagnosed abdominal tumor). After the loss of her sister, Mela became very lethargic and depressed. Despite attention and even the small stuffed animal i gave to her for cuddling, she didn't last long alone.
Have you guys had similar experiences with rats and illness? Are pet rats from an actual breeder stronger? Ive considered trying again with ratties bred for good health, if such exist.

[Sphax]

Sweet story

Im studying to become a vet now Firt bachelor atm exams and in one lesson we had to open and see the inner side from the rat it was intersting till we got to the part to remove the digestive system which smelled awfully bad!!!



hmmm Rats as pets in cataclysm ? what u think?


/cheers Sphax

[Maqueda]

As far as I was told, my Beanie and her litter were bred specifically not to have cancer, which, as I understand, rats are prone to. If they can do that, I'm sure they can breed rats that are healthier in general.

And pet rats in Cataclysm would rock! It'd be like Rodent's Revenge, WoW-style! (Anyone remember that ancient Windows game?) But really, if you think about any sort of medieval combat-based game where you had to start out killing rats, it would be a nice little turn-around. Heh heh!

[Emowin]

REVENGE OF THE RATTY POOHS!!
I'm game pet rats for wow please bliz.

[bloodysam]

that makes a bad story change to a perfet ending of happiness

[luxxman]

Great story, rats make great pets and my gf and I have 3 of them

[Mania]

I took Ana to the vet this morning because she has an abscess on her nose that isn't healing. Turns out one of her top teeth is growing backwards -- into her head. She's going into surgery this afternoon. The vet says she should be fine -- she's young and other than this, very healthy. But she has to go under anesthesia and I'm worried sick.

I'll post here after we pick her up and let everyone know how she's doing.

Side note: Our vet is amazing. He's one of the top vets in the state for reptiles, and in Florida that's saying a lot. He talks to his patients (the non-human ones) exactly the same way I do myself. (In fact, it's sometimes creepy because he'll use the same phrases I would although I've never used them in front of him.) He is extremely gentle and patient with the animals, and very calming and patient with the humans as well. I trust him completely. (I'm still worried, though.)

[Vephriel]

Aww, I wish her the best of luck!

I'm so annoyed with the fact that my province has a ban on rats. I've wanted to get a rat for so long, and then we moved to Alberta and found out they're illegal here. I think it's something to do with how we're a prairie province, but it doesn't make much sense to me considering mice are still here and are just as destructive to crops.

[Mania]

Are you allowed to have ferrets? A friend of mine who moved to California (where rats are allowed but ferrets are not) got his ferret in by claiming that it was a new breed of rat.

Mind you, I don't recommend that kind of subterfuge. But it worked for him.