Sal Nicholson , another
co-founder of Quite Software .
This is my page, and I'm going to tell you something
about the pet rats we have had the pleasure of looking after at
various times. None of that PostScript nonsense here.
Not so long ago, we had four great rats: Lazarus Long, Comet,
Otto, and Orlac.
This is a picture of Wolf,
a very special rat. Wolf is still very much missed.
You can't see from the picture, but he was hooded - with a white body except for his head and a dark stripe down his back. He wasn't a well rat, having a wheeze for most of his life. This did, however, mean he was easy to find. He would sleep on my pillow at night and lived in my sock drawer the rest of the time! He was the inspiration of many of my stories.
One Christmas, I decorated many of my Christmas presents with individual paintings of the Christmas rat. He was modelled on Wolf, partly from memory and partly from his reluctant sittings. There were around 20 in all. There are now half a dozen on the Christmas Rat Page. Don't miss it!
Life with the patter of 68 tiny paws was eventful to say the least,
but the story of how we got them in the first place was just as
amazing too. Or maybe not when you consider the circumstances
-
'Fresh or frozen?' asked the man in the Vivarium, when we first
enquired.
'Two girls, you say', he muttered disappearing into the depths
of his shop. Unlike some other pet shops, he was able to sex them
accurately.
'These are the only three girls I have right now.' I was hooked:
an all white one, a brown hooded one, and a very frightned
brown agouti - all brown. We took all three (suckers!)
The phrase 'only three girls' should have rung bells, but it didn't,
knowing that with rats kept as snake fodder, he wouldn't have
bothered to separate males from females.
Anyway, just short of 23 days later, Gloriana (the white one)
and Spider (the brown hooded) gave birth just a couple of days
apart. Cobweb (the agouti) I was relieved to say, had not been
subjected to any kind of saucy behaviour whilst at home in the
shop.
It was difficult to be certain that two of them were pregnant
at first, but the emerging pear shape and rapid weight gain soon
convinced Aandi - I was in denial, until they gave birth.
Between them, they had 17 babies, though two were dead at birth.
We found one of them a good home, which left us with (including
the original three), 17 rats to look after.
Though not wanting that many originally, I can't imagine now
not having been through that experience. Watching the two
mothers build and repair their separate nests, suckle the nearest
babies at hand and, best of all, take each other's babies from
under the other mum's nose!
When they were small, the rats would try to fit together into
the smallest possible space. This is three (or possibly four)
fitting into one small food bowl. Shifting them at dinner time
was sometimes quite a challenge!
Every now and again you get a rat that steals your heart away. This is him on the right, anxious to get into mischief!
Like Wolf, Dexter the Cuddled was just such a rat. Also like Wolf,
his antics became the subjects of many stories. Read about his
first bathnight and his run in
with the vacuum cleaner.
I am a member of the
NFRS (National Fancy Rat Society)
in the UK, so visit their page.
One visitor wrote:
This morning I was at work reading the comp.lang.postscript newsgroup,
and by nightfall I had two rats. You can probably guess the train of
events. I spent a good hour at work reading rat pages I found from
yours, and after work, I shopped for rats, and went to Home Depot and
bought materials for a cage. I got two rats on the way home - no stores
had any fancy rats, so I got a tan one and a black one, both with lots
of white. They are small males. I have named them Raster and Vector.
Last modified: March 2001
How we got 17 rats without really trying.
He enjoyed nothing better than antagonising Edgar the Brave (official name: Edgar Allen Poe).
Although he never won!
More about rats
There are many, many other rat pages on the web, with stories and
pictures. Here are 3 of my favourites:
Read about the legendary Rat Palace
Visit the stable from where
my very own Ichabod the Fat was sired.
And don't miss bclee's rats!
Please send me email
with your comments on this page!
