I have always been a fan of exotic pets and small animals. My first pet growing up was a praying mantis named Sam. Then followed my hoard of Jackson Chameleons and troop of guinea pigs. Keeping rats as pets never crossed my mind until I was doing research on them.
Research, as in laboratory research. Yes, I was trained to inject rats with drugs and collect blood for quantification. No, I was not a cold blooded rat killer. I remember the first rat I euthanized during training. She was a small brown agouti and I wrapped her in a blanket and instantly bonded with her. My goggles became cloudy when it was time to euthanize her and I cried on the way home from work. After a year in research, I realized that this career path was not for me. I appreciate and agree with the hard work done by researchers and the sacrifices rats do for human health, but it just was not for me. I love animals too much to be that person. I remember the lab coordinator talked up how great rats are as pets and how smart they are. He said that once he had one of his rats ride on his shoulders while doing lab tasks. The next day I adopted 2 baby rat boys and I fell in love with Rattus norvegicus. Here are some of the many reasons why I am in love with rats.
