[Rat]

I found this picture of a rat somewhere online. I thought it immensely adorable.




I'm not sure who the rat belongs/ed to. Whoever it is gets full credit (and my compliments).

Anyone else have any cute/cool pics?

This is the site I got it at. This guy gets full credit:
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~komarek/notwork/rats/rats.html

[ February 24, 2002: Message edited by: Rat ]

[ February 24, 2002: Message edited by: Rat ]

[[Shizo]]

Dunno, i think your own pictures of rats were much better. Your rats are funny looking.

[Rat]

I know, mine were better, but that's only because they're soo much more photogenic.

I was looking for a rat to draw when I came across that one. I've actually seen a rat do that before, just on a mug, which tipped over spilling some sort of cereal everywhere.

But seriously, rats etc. look a lot cuter if they're not your own.

My rats are escape artists.

[klaivu]

Rats are filthy and carry disease.

[Socar MYLES]

Rat you, klaivu:
http://www.gorblimey.com/art/bad2.html

Think of all the diseases you could get from that bite!

[klaivu]

I somehow knew you'd reply to that one, socar.

[Steelwind]

Humans are filthy and carry disease, too. The really sick part is the humans that don't try to fight their natural filthiness and disease-carrying-ness.

[klaivu]

People continuously disinfecting their homes in attempt to kill off every bacteria are scarier. People are shit, not soap.

[Gimbal8]

Aw man. That looks just like my Throt, who passed away 2 months ago.

* Gimbal starts sobbing *

[Rat]

Gimbal8 - I know how you feel. We're on our fifth batch of rats, and these are the 7th and 8th individuals.

That one looks like my favorite thus far: Igor. He lived 4 years, and was a gimp. We have no pictures of him that I know of.


Rats are actually very clean. Much cleaner than most people give them credit for. They even bathe each other (not to mention my fingers *ratlike voice* You're dirty, dirty, dirty! ).

[ February 28, 2002: Message edited by: Rat ]

[Gimbal8]

4 years? Wow. Ours only get to about 3 years. We have only had 3 generations of rats. And yes, people don't realise they are clean animals (provided of course that you keep their cage clean like any other animal), not to mention that most people don't realise that the rats they are thinking of are not the type of rats you get from a pet store.

My fovorite was Nikodemos, which interestingly enough turned out to be the smartest rat we ever had. It is amazing what they can learn when you spend enough time with them.

[Rat]

Our smartest was Fluffy, the first one. He was albino. He had a brother, but he got sat on . Fluffy actually knew his name. The 4 girls we've had so far've responded to "Sweetie."

[Coaster]

Wow, thats smarter then my cat... and maybe a few people I know...

[Socar MYLES]

The longest-lived rat I had was also the first rat I ever had. Her name was Ratty, and she was a brown hooded rat, which is pretty much the basic, essential pet rat, the easiest kind to find apart from the ubiquitous albino.

Ratty was quite bright for a rat--answered to the sound of her name, played dead when poked in the side and told to play dead (no kidding!), and did all those cute ratty things us rat owners love, such as falling asleep in my pockets.

Ratty lasted an amazing five years, then died a spectacular death. (Well, it wasn't THAT spectacular, but it scarred me for life--physically, that is.) She had been getting thin and tired for a few weeks, and one night, it was pretty obvious she was about to die. She wasn't even raising her head any more when her name was called. So, being the decent pet owner I am, I picked her up and held her in my hands. I was reading a book and not paying THAT much attention to her after a while (I'd been holding her for about six hours at this point), when suddenly she opened her mouth, sank her teeth into the webbing of skin between my forefinger and my thumb...

...and died.

Now, here's the spectacular bit--I couldn't get her little jaws off me! Even though she was dead, I didn't really want to smash her little skull to dislodge her, or rip off her lower jaw. So I was stuck pushing, pulling, and eventually prying with a fork-handle, until her little corpse fell off.

After that, I always avoided the mouth area when handling dying rats.

[ March 01, 2002: Message edited by: Socar MYLES ]

[wolfchick]

Rats are very intelligent!

We have a pet room that houses two ferrets and the rat. They don't get along. The rat actually boxes the ferret's noses when they try to get rough with her. I had found her in the ferret cage one day screaming at one of the ferret's, on her back feet,balanced on her tail and ready to rumble. She figured out to open her cage. I then tied the cage shut with velcro. The next night we were sleeping and all of the sudden my hubby jumps up and has the rat in his hand about to throw her across the room. Lucky rat! She had chewed through the velcro, climbed off the dresser, went through two rooms, under our door, up the bed and under the covers.

And yes, they are clean creatures.

^!!^

[Gimbal8]

It took me about two years of trying to outsmart Nikodemos and find some way to keep her from getting out of the cage. Freakin' escape artist from hell.

The worst part was the other rats would watch her do this stuff and then follow her lead once she was successful at escaping.

[Rat]

We keep our rats in an aquarium that's about two feet high. Only recently have our rats actually tried (and succeeded in) escaping. My sister's rat, Mathizar, figured out how to shimmy along a ledge when we put a partial lid on. Now there's a board with holes in it covering their entire "house". Mathizar still tries to escape. My rat, Bo, could care less about where she is.

Our current rats haven't housebroken themselves. Unfortunately. They leave us gifts... Yech.