handle with care

before we got our rats i thought they were ugly, creepy and gross... greasy sewer dwelling creatures that weren't worth anyone's attention or love.

we were in petsmart one day checking out the supercool robohamsters when a girl and her mom came over with a pathetic sad looking rat wrapped up in a towel... it looked like it was about to die and the mom told me they were there to see the petsmart vet (which seemed soooo odd to me - it was just a rat ) and that if we were looking at hamsters as pets, we would do so much better with a rat. hmm i thought, that's all very well if you're a crazy rat lady but that scaly tail gives me the heebie jeebies and surely their teeth are infectious and the sound they make when they scamper makes my flesh creep. my boys were a little afraid too, but polite as always, we went and checked out the sad looking rat and sure enough, she was very sweet, made no attempt to maim me with her rabid teeth and i even stroked her scaly tail which she curled around my hand as if to say a gentle hello :)

my boys fell in love with her. they wanted a rat and they wanted one badly. they begged. they cleaned the car and garage. they made daily rat chore charts. they walked dogs and replenished our sodas and emptied trashcans. less than 24 hours later, we had two rats, one for each boy :| within a week we lost Ben to pneumonia :( my boys were absolutely heartbroken and i thought getting rats was a really really dumb idea.

however... it's been a month and i realize how completely wrong my first impression of these animals was :( rats are the friendliest, gentlest, cleanest, most trusting, loyal little pets any child could wish for. they give back so much love and have such trust in the little hands caring for them - never a single nip no matter how overzealous the handling gets :) they are funny and adorable - they sleep on their backs with their paws in the air like little dogs. i think every child should have a pet rat - to teach kindness, acceptance, empathy and trust and that first impressions can be so very very wrong. i love you, sweet Jerry-Berry and Teddy-Bear (and i hope you are happily settling into your (third) new cage as i type:)

Sam & Teddy

Danny and Jerry-Berry