As
I child I had two pet mice, Whisky and Frisky, but my brother and
I were so upset when their short lives came to an end that we weren't
allowed to have any more, and it wasn't until my own children were
teenagers that we embarked upon keeping rats.
|
|
Our
first pet rats were Templeton and Nimh (the "Literary Rats")
who were supposed to be temporary guests while their owners moved
home ... they were never collected and so stayed with us for the
rest of their lives! They were such delightful pets (much friendlier
than the succession of gerbils and hamsters we'd had previously)
that we took to rats in general and when they died, both at a
ripe old age, they were soon followed by Guinness (photo on left)
and then Foster and Murphy (the "Brewery" rat series)
and after them, Roxy and Dewey.
|
Roxy
got her name purely because it begins with the letter R (alliteration
is always satisfying! :-), and Dewey, the Dumbo rat, got her name
because of her startling resemblance to the smallest brother of "Malcolm
In The Middle!" They
are the two hooded rats at the right hand end of the row at the bottom
of the page, with Foster and Murphy on the left.
|
The biggest
drawback (only drawback as far as we're concerned) with rats
is their short average lifespan : apart from Templeton and Nimh,
whose ages we didn't know when we got them but were certainly
older than average when they died, all of our rats have died
between the ages of 18 months and 3 years, with an average of
2 and a half years. All of the rats on this page are, alas,
no more and we are currently "between rats" and looking
for two more to join our family.
The photograph
to the right shows a very young Roxy with our cat Bounce : don't
be tempted to do this with your average cat! Bounce is far from
normal in any sense of the word .... |
|
STOP PRESS
..... two new baby rats have joined us! See photos at bottom
Home
- - - My Own Rats - - - Keeping Pet Rats
- - - Gallery - - - Links
- - - Email
