Real Rats: The Story of the YRB Girls, Part 2

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Mar 19, 1999

Last month we left the girls in a cardboard box on their way home to our Brooklyn apartment. They were all piled together in a scared heap in a corner, occasionally munching on cucumber and worried about their futures.

When we got home with them, we helped them out of their box and into a three-story ferret cage, which we'd prepared for them. I placed a few of them on each level in the cage and sat back to watch. They stayed perfectly still for a while, then some of the braver ones began to look around. They walked over to the ramps and just sat and made no effort to explore further. I then remembered something about the girls. The cage they had been kept in at the store was only about 6-8 inches high - they had had no room to stand up on their hind legs. So, they had spent most of their lives in 2-dimensions and had no clue how to live in a 3-dimensional world!

All of them looked so pitiful and bewildered, and I wanted to help them somehow, but I knew they would never let me. There was nothing I could do for them other than what I had already. It was then I made a decision that would not be appropriate in most cases, but for these girls it worked wonders. I put our other female rat, chocolate-hooded Bonnie Bee, in with them. I stood by ready to grab her if they decided she was an enemy. They had no reaction at all, so I relaxed and watched. Bonnie ran around, happy to finally be with other ratties, but immediately she seemed to sense something was wrong. She went up to each rat, sniffed them and began to groom them as if she was trying to comfort them. She went up and down the ladders and checked out each one, grooming and sniffing. Finally some of them began to relax and notice her. Some of them watched her going up and down the ladders with interest. Bonnie began to travel up and down in the cage with the others watching. Soon she was leading some of the braver girls on climbing expeditions. You could practically hear her instructions: "Nose to tail, girls! Keep in line!"

I breathed a sigh of relief and went to order some celebratory sushi. (Yes, our animals all eat well!) Later we sat around the cage, watching Bonnie and the girls and sharing bits of futomaki and shrimp dumplings. It was party time, and the girls relaxed enough to begin to eat! Some of them were still scared to go near the ladders, so I put food and water on all the shelves of the cage. They ate like starved rats, which they had been. Their first taste of yogurt drops for dessert was fun to watch! Everyone had two, and those little drops disappeared in record time.

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