My Rats

These are pet rats I've had over the years. Why rats? I think they're cute! I found out first-hand that rats have a bad reputation, and it's really undeserved. They're friendly, inquisitive, and they'll never bite you. They make absolutely wonderful pets! The only thing I don't like about them is that they don't live very long -- average life span is 2-3 years.

This is me with my black & white hooded rat, Tommy. (This is also what I looked like as a rebellious 19-year-old! *LOL*) I had to stand very close to the aquarium, as he wasn't very fond of being picked up & I was afraid I might have to put him down in a hurry if he started squirming too much!

This is me with my albino rat, Vinnie. I had him at the same time as Tommy, and they lived in the same aquarium. (They'd often play together! One of their favorite games was "Let's throw the food dish around the sides of the aquarium & keep mom awake!" *LOL*) Vinnie was the friendlier of the two. Rats are VERY easy to train! Somehow I unknowingly trained Vinnie to come when I tapped my fingers on the bottom of the aquarium. Another thing I unknowingly trained him to do was to give me a kiss! I don't know how I got him trained to do this, but if I held him near my face & made kissy noises, he gave me a little kiss on my nose! You'll see him doing that in the second photo. Vinnie & Tommy both lived for 4 years, outliving their life expectancy!

Several years later, I had a dark brown & white rat named Jack -- sadly, no photos of him. He got sick & was only with me about 6 months.

My last rat had similar markings to Jack -- a dark brown & white rat named Sir Lancelot. He lived the average life expectancy of 3 years. Here are a couple photos of him.

This is something that Lance would do if I'd purposely leave the cage-type cover off his aquarium! Don't worry, he couldn't jump out. I wouldn't have been standing there giggling & taking photos if he could! :-)