Monday, September 15, 2008

AIN'T HE CUTE?

We need a rat, can you get one?
Sure!
Such is the nature of my job.
We are currently putting together an exhibit about animals that adapt to life in darkness and for the city section the request was for a rat. This was in addition to the desert scorpions, cave fish, tarantula, hermit crabs and snakes. The last three are no problem because I already have them. The desert scorpions are on their way - it pays to have the right contacts, and I am borrowing the cave fish from a friend. So all I needed was the rat. The local pet store usually has all kinds of colours except what would generally be thought of as the 'natural' rat sort of colour but I figured I would give it a shot anyway. Now in my line of work the only rats I have anything to do with come in packets, frozen, so that I can feed them to the snakes but I am up to most challenges so a rat it is.


Well as it turned out the hunt was extremely easy. For the first time ever the local pet store had a 'rat coloured' rat. Not yellow or white or piebald just good old grey/black - perfect! I haven't handled rats before (at least not live ones) but we have become fast friends already.


The most fascinating thing about this entire process is peoples reaction to rats. I enthusiastically tell people to come and see my lovely new arrival but when I tell them what it is the look of horror soon appears - a rat! Eugh!! Then they get to meet him and slowly he wins people round. He is very cuddly and very gentle. Likes nothing better than to sit quietly in my arms and be petted, it is wonderful to see peoples opinions change in a matter of minutes, his fan club is growing all the time.


Another common misconception is that these are dirty animals, nothing could be further from the truth. This guy spends hours every day cleaning himself meticulously from head to the tip of his extremely long tail.


I think you get where I am heading with this - don't follow the herd, make your own judgements on individual animals, by experience, not hearsay, you may be pleasantly surprised. As for me, well I have fulfilled the request of the exhibits department but much better than that I have managed to show a lot of other people who I work with, that rats really are pretty neat :)

Photo Credits - CJT

6 comments:

Louise said...

It IS cute, and I would love a rat. And I'm glad the ones you feed to snakes are frozen. I couldn't put a live one in with a snake.

Celeste said...

Louise - he is growing on me every day - he is a real sweety.

All responsible snake keepers feed fresh frozen prey, its just a more humane thing for all involved and most captive snakes adapt to it very easily.

Thanks for dropping by.

Rambling Woods said...

My daughter had two pet rats. I found them to be very intelligent, clean and eager to please. I only wished they lived longer than 2-3 years...

Celeste said...

Michelle - I am now hearing this from numerous people, I am so happy to be discovering the delights of these critters, it was one of the few species that I didn't have at some stage as a child.
Life span is an unfortunate aspect of keeping animals, unless you go for a parrot or a tortoise!

Rambling Woods said...

Celeste..My daughter was ill for a few years and home as a pre-teen. Her being a night owl and the rattys being nocturnal worked out well. I was so sad when they died. They really are such sweet animals...

Celeste said...

Yes indeed :) We have named this one Scabbers like the rat in the Harry Potter books!