I really learned to appreciate rats about six years ago. My daughter had a class in animal training that required that she train a rat. A friend of your gave us a white rat with a tan "veil" mark on her. She named her "Champagne". After determining that Champagne wasn't very bright, she bought a feeder rat, black as night except for a white belly, and named her "Caviar". Caviar was trained for the class.

My wife developed a very close relationship with Champagne. The rat used to nuzzle her. Champagne had several cancer surgeries before we had to put her down.

Caviar wasn't quite as friendly. She was a more athletic rat, and if she got loose, it was a major project to catch her.

My daughter dropped the class when the rat froze up during the test. She would take the class again a couple years later. Again she bought two rats, this time from the same litter. These girls were named Chablis and Truffle. They were young, six week old rats. What we didn't know was that Chablis was carrying a load of pinkies! She gave birth to nine, so we had eleven rats for a few weeks.

We kept two of the pinkies, both male. One of the pinkies did a magnificent job in the class for my daughter.

bfG