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PENNY
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This is Penny. She is around 9 months old and her butt is slightly rusted. She is the cute little ball of fuzz that made me fall in love with rats. She loves to explore, and finds it mildly annoying when you pick her up during her "explore mode." She can be extremely sweet when she is sleepy, and I've even caught her boggling once or twice but I didn't let on that I knew! She doesn't like to be bothered when she's eating, and she will find ANY way to get the food her humans are holding. She seems to be mellowing out with her age, and she requested more Mighty Bites for her rattie retirement. I think she's planning retirement too early personally.
Her Story begins with the end of another's........
My puppy FooFoo was 15 years young when she passed away. She passed the year I left home for school, and it took me a very long time before I even considered getting another animal. Six years later I began to feel the desire to have a pet but I was not ready for a dog.
I told my boyfriend Dan that I really wanted a small pet, and at the time, I was considering getting a chinchilla. He suggested a rat. I have to admit I am ashamed at my initial response now even though I don't remember it exactly but I'm sure it was along the lines of...."What?!?! A RAT as a PET?" He had one as a child, and he explained they were really smart and loving. The seed was planted but I didn't realize how deep it had taken root until I saw Penny at a pet store in State College.
We were visiting Dan's sister, and a new pet was certainly not in the plans but Penny was a pure ball of energy. She was bouncing here and there, and when they plunked her out of the tank she sat on me and started cleaning herself. I think people could pop the heart shaped bubbles floating from my head at that point.
I scoped out the store for a rat cage, purchased the Super Pet Deluxe kit for rats, found some toys and accessories, told the worker I would be taking her, and she was adopted.
edit: photo didn't work
OSTRICH
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This is Ostrich. He's about 8 months old. Here you can see Ostrich doing what he does best: looking cozy in his hammock. Ostrich loves to sleep, stretch, yawn and eat. He looks like a big squishy oaf most of the time but he snaps to life if you dangle a tasty treat in front of him. He then turns to Ostrich the food grabbing ninja. He's not like other ratties who like to live it up and explore. Nope! He's perfectly content in his home with his treats, and he'll thank you NOT to pluck him out of his home without his permission. He's the only rattie I know that will sneak back downstairs to his cage when given freedom to explore the forbidden upstairs! He really loves it when you scritch him while he's in his hammock. He's a bit of a dubious sleeper. I've had to nudge him quite hard to make sure he was actually just sleeping. One time he was actually sleeping on his back with his paws sticking up in the air.
The story continues with Ostrich..................
Before I adopted Penny I had been doing all my research in all the wrong places. I would go into a pet store to check out the ratties once a week or so, and I would ask any questions I thought I needed to know about how to care for a pet rattie. I was pretty naive until the day I adopted Penny. The worker there picked her up by the tail, and I asked if that was ok. He said it was, and that it didn't hurt them. It really didn't feel right, so when I took her to Jackie's I asked if I could use her computer.
I did not have much patience for the internet back then, and I didn't really use it as a reliable source of information but I was really shocked when website after website said the same things about rats. The first big mistake I realized I had made was rats are social animals, and they may get depressed without a friend. Penny had only been in her new home for 30 mins or so when I announced that we had to go back. I didn't make a connection with any of the rats that were left at that store, so we looked up another pet store (locally owned) and there was a girl there who was a fellow rat owner. She was nice and seemed to know a great deal more than the Petco workers. She directed me to a cage where she was saving three "sisters" for a special home, and.....no way.......they had curly fur. We'll that just blew my mind at the time (oh what a newb I was :roll: ).
I picked out the sweetest and the smallest "girl" but the more knowledgeable worker made a mistake and my "girl" ended up developing "tumors." :roll: yes that's right. I thought "she" had tumors and not testicles. {{smacks head}}
Jackie ended up driving back the next day and adopting Ostrich's two sisters who actually WERE sisters. Of course I picked the missexed male. I always knew Ostrich was different from Penny but I didn't realize how different until it was too late.........
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I don't regret picking Ostrich though. You can really see the blue in his fur in this pic.
This is Penny. She is around 9 months old and her butt is slightly rusted. She is the cute little ball of fuzz that made me fall in love with rats. She loves to explore, and finds it mildly annoying when you pick her up during her "explore mode." She can be extremely sweet when she is sleepy, and I've even caught her boggling once or twice but I didn't let on that I knew! She doesn't like to be bothered when she's eating, and she will find ANY way to get the food her humans are holding. She seems to be mellowing out with her age, and she requested more Mighty Bites for her rattie retirement. I think she's planning retirement too early personally.
Her Story begins with the end of another's........
My puppy FooFoo was 15 years young when she passed away. She passed the year I left home for school, and it took me a very long time before I even considered getting another animal. Six years later I began to feel the desire to have a pet but I was not ready for a dog.
I told my boyfriend Dan that I really wanted a small pet, and at the time, I was considering getting a chinchilla. He suggested a rat. I have to admit I am ashamed at my initial response now even though I don't remember it exactly but I'm sure it was along the lines of...."What?!?! A RAT as a PET?" He had one as a child, and he explained they were really smart and loving. The seed was planted but I didn't realize how deep it had taken root until I saw Penny at a pet store in State College.
We were visiting Dan's sister, and a new pet was certainly not in the plans but Penny was a pure ball of energy. She was bouncing here and there, and when they plunked her out of the tank she sat on me and started cleaning herself. I think people could pop the heart shaped bubbles floating from my head at that point.
I scoped out the store for a rat cage, purchased the Super Pet Deluxe kit for rats, found some toys and accessories, told the worker I would be taking her, and she was adopted.
edit: photo didn't work
OSTRICH
This is Ostrich. He's about 8 months old. Here you can see Ostrich doing what he does best: looking cozy in his hammock. Ostrich loves to sleep, stretch, yawn and eat. He looks like a big squishy oaf most of the time but he snaps to life if you dangle a tasty treat in front of him. He then turns to Ostrich the food grabbing ninja. He's not like other ratties who like to live it up and explore. Nope! He's perfectly content in his home with his treats, and he'll thank you NOT to pluck him out of his home without his permission. He's the only rattie I know that will sneak back downstairs to his cage when given freedom to explore the forbidden upstairs! He really loves it when you scritch him while he's in his hammock. He's a bit of a dubious sleeper. I've had to nudge him quite hard to make sure he was actually just sleeping. One time he was actually sleeping on his back with his paws sticking up in the air.
The story continues with Ostrich..................
Before I adopted Penny I had been doing all my research in all the wrong places. I would go into a pet store to check out the ratties once a week or so, and I would ask any questions I thought I needed to know about how to care for a pet rattie. I was pretty naive until the day I adopted Penny. The worker there picked her up by the tail, and I asked if that was ok. He said it was, and that it didn't hurt them. It really didn't feel right, so when I took her to Jackie's I asked if I could use her computer.
I did not have much patience for the internet back then, and I didn't really use it as a reliable source of information but I was really shocked when website after website said the same things about rats. The first big mistake I realized I had made was rats are social animals, and they may get depressed without a friend. Penny had only been in her new home for 30 mins or so when I announced that we had to go back. I didn't make a connection with any of the rats that were left at that store, so we looked up another pet store (locally owned) and there was a girl there who was a fellow rat owner. She was nice and seemed to know a great deal more than the Petco workers. She directed me to a cage where she was saving three "sisters" for a special home, and.....no way.......they had curly fur. We'll that just blew my mind at the time (oh what a newb I was :roll: ).
I picked out the sweetest and the smallest "girl" but the more knowledgeable worker made a mistake and my "girl" ended up developing "tumors." :roll: yes that's right. I thought "she" had tumors and not testicles. {{smacks head}}
Jackie ended up driving back the next day and adopting Ostrich's two sisters who actually WERE sisters. Of course I picked the missexed male. I always knew Ostrich was different from Penny but I didn't realize how different until it was too late.........
I don't regret picking Ostrich though. You can really see the blue in his fur in this pic.
Is there another person on this forum with the name Jay and Silent Bob? I remember some art being done by another member!
