a new addition to our family!

[Guest guest]

Today I had to walk to the store to get more of those little reinforcement

stickers you put on paper before you put them in three-ring binders. On the

way to the store, I saw a cage in someone's front yard with a little

buff-colored rat in it. Of course, I stopped to admire the rat!

As I was admiring it, a man came out of the house. I felt like I might be

intruding so I explained to him, " I was just admiring your rodent! "

" You can have it, cage and everything, for free, " he said.

I explained that I already have a rat and couldn't possibly bring another

one home.

He said that his family was moving and they weren't taking the rat because

" it hates men " and would bite him and his son any time they got near it.

" She loves my wife, though, " he said. " It's a good rat for a woman. "

I still said I couldn't take it and he said that he was going to take it to

a local pet store and give it to them if no one took it. " It will be here

all night, if you want to come back and get it, " he said.

I went on to the store and then I came home and asked my partner if his

best friend still wanted a rat (his best friend admires our rat and

recently had to give up his three cats to his ex-girlfriend in a bad

split-up and had been talking about getting a rat.) My partner called, but

his friend said he still wasn't ready for a pet yet.

But my partner immediately realized what I had been thinking but hadn't

said to him: that rat was probably just abandoned in the yard and it was

already 40 degrees (fahrenheit) and getting colder as dusk approached. DOgs

and cats could come upon the cage and torment or kill it or it could freeze

or starve to death.

" Let's go look at it, " he said.

We went and the house was deserted, the moving truck was gone and the rat

was still in the yard. For a rat that " hates men, " it sure took to my

partner quickly! She climbed inside his shirt and refused to leave it for

hours! She's such a very sweet little rat, I just don't see how anyone

could abandon her like that!

So now we have a little girl rat in addition to our older male rat. They

met each other and seemed to like one another (we supervised closely so he

couldn't make her pregnant!) so now she is still a little skittish but

settling in. She doesn't have a name yet.

If you want to see pictures of her and our male hooded rat (his name is

Salad) you can look here:

http://www.realm-of-shade.com/rats/rat4/

(I took the pictures and Rob held the rats)

(the directory is called rat4 because she is the fourth rat that my partner

and I have owned together.)

Sparrow

(and now I have to go get some snooze before tomorrow's tests!)