Oh Rats!!!

True, often strange, yet somehow funny rat stories

Dirt Devil

The big girls (Marigold and Isabella) are notorious for their ability to get into trouble. In this case, it was their playtime and they were romping around the Rat Room. In addition to rats, this room contains (or contained as the case may be) a potted plant, a television, and miscellaneous stuff all over the floor.

Isabella ran behind the TV to chew on wires (she doesn't seem to understand that electricity+rat="shocking experience") and I tried to get her out. Marigold took this as an oppurtunity to get into more trouble; she went straight for the plant.

While I was leaning over behind the TV (nearly upside down) trying to grab Isabella, Marigold dug about eight inches into the potted plant's dirt, and flung it all over the room. I caught Isabella and turned around, to see three things: (1) a plant with no more dirt  (2) mounds of dirt on the floor  and  (3) a rat who was trying to look innocent.

I said to Marigold "WHO did that?" knowing full well it was her... after all she had dirt under her fingernails!  She gave me her usual innocent look as if she was saying "It must have been the iguana who did that..." 

Well THAT was the end of playtime for the day! The naughty rats went back in their cage, and I'm sure they were laughing at me while I cleaned up the dirt piles!!! Needless to say, the plant is no longer in that room!

"it must have been the iguana"

Wintergreen Lifesavers

Nicodemus seems to have a taste for Wintergreen Lifesavers. Personally I don't like these, I think they're too minty, but Nicodemus apparantly has different taste in candy. While out for playtime, he crawled into my backpack and found a single wintergreen lifesaver. He snatched it out of my backpack and scampered back into the cage...

I heard rattie-chewing and discovered Nicodemus snorking down the lifesaver as if it were a donut. At this point I nearly went into cardiac arrest because I seemed to remember reading that wintergreen was bad for rats! I thought that I was going to have to have Nicodemus' stomach pumped, or give him CPR, or some other equally repulsive task. Don't get me wrong here, I like my rats, but I'm not about to give them mouth-to-mouth!

I e-mailed the Ratlady and was much relieved to find that wintergreen is not poisonous to rats... and the rat clan lived happily ever after with no CPR involved.

"CPR?!?! Noooo way!!!"

Intros

After acquiring two new baby girl rats, I waited a really long time to introduce them to my older girls. I guess I was afraid that Marigold (AKA the accident-prone scardey-rat) would beat up the babies.

Upon meeting the babies, Marigold puffed up like a blimp to look scary. She then ran away and hid in my sleeve (Can you say "clueless"...). Meanwhile Miranda, the baby who was easily half Marigold's weight (though possibly twice her brains), proceeded to sniff at nothing in particular on the table.

At every attempt at intros, the big girls ran away while the little girls made googly eyes and tried to figure out where their cage went.

A rat puffs up it's fur when it wants to look big, scary, and agressive- Marigold would do this and then run for my sleeve as if the babies were about to chomp her head off. They clearly had no intentions of doing that. Finally the girls are getting along well...  although they're not living together yet, I can only imagine what will happen when I try that....

"Do you supppose we really are smarter than Marigold?"

Nicodemus' Valentine

On Valentine's Day I had a box of "Sweethearts" candies, and I though I would give one to the boy rats as a treat. I know, candy is too sugary and my rats are too fat, but a rat's life is too short not to eat candy! So I gave Nicodemus a piece of candy. Of course all of his brothers were jealous and tried to get it away from him!

Eventually Nicodemus finished his candy without letting the other boys get any, they were disappointed of course. Rizzo (the runt) was not going to give up, he was determined to get a piece of that candy, never mind that it had already been eaten! He chased Nicodemus around the cage and got him cornered. Nicodemus thought that he could get away easily, being that he was larger, but he was wrong! Rizzo grabbed Nicodemus' face, flipped him on his side, and proceeded to lick the remaining candy flavor from Nicodemus' teeth.

And that is how Nicodemus was french-kissed by another (male) rat on Valentine's Day.

No, Rizzo cannnot write his own name... as far as I know.  

TV Guide

Ever see a rat run around the room carrying a TV guide thats five times her size? When I let my girls out to play, they have the run of the TV room. One of their favorite things to do is find the TV guide, run around the room dragging it behind them, and then returning victoriously to their cage with the booty.

Problem: the TV guide is wider than the cage door! Solution: Chew the TV guide to shreds and bring it into the cage one piece at a time! This is the most sensible thing to do according to Rat Logic. Just ask Marigold!

"This would look lovely downstairs don't you think?"

Stinky

I have a small stuffed mouse called "Stinky", it got this name because it is lavendar-scented. One day I had Stinky in my backpack, and my backpack was on the table- the same table where the boy rats come out to play. I was doing homework and not paying much attention to the rats' antics.

So the boys were out in the table and inevitably they smelled Stinky in my backpack. The zippers were closed, but he boys were determined- so they chewed holes in my backpack until they found Stinky. Buckwheat pulled Stinky out of my backpack and returned to the cage, I suppose with the intention of eating it.

When I turned around, here is what I saw: (1) a backpack full of holes (2) six naughty rats trying to look innocent (3) Buckwheat with a mouthful of Stinky. I rescued Stinky, but my backpack was full of holes.

One would think I would be mad at the rats for being so naughty... but no. Nobody can stay mad at a rat, it simply cannot be done. Their cute faces get to you, and you have to forgive them for whatever it is they have done. And that's why the boys were lounging in their hammock five minutes later with mouthfuls of treats.

>> sorry no picture of stinky!<<

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