Real Rats: Snoogie's Marvelous Mystery Babies, Part One

Snoogie saw a sucker coming when she picked me out at the pet store. I was at a local shop I hadn't been to in a while checking out the food and bedding selection. Amazingly, they had three or four cages of fancy rats, who all looked to be in good condition. My husband, daughter and I oohed and aahed over them all. One of them caught my eye, and I was hooked. She was a beautiful platinum hooded girl with sad ruby eyes. I did my best to ignore her, bought the supplies I came for and left. During the drive home, I was haunted by those eyes.

When we got home, my husband said, "You know, I wouldn't say no if you went back to get that agouti boy." (Apparently he had been picked out, too.) Then my daughter chimed in, "I want the pretty tan one!" Anyone who is familiar with rats will recognize this syndrome. Rats pick people out and subconsciously send them messages that are impossible to refuse. It's a conspiracy that has affected many of us....

We all piled back into the car and drove quickly back to the pet store, each of us praying that our favorite rat hadn't been sentenced to become snake food. I breathed a sigh of relief to see that the platinum girl was still there. We got the storeowner to help us with the rats and were appalled to find she believed all those beautiful rats bit. She was afraid of them, but it was obvious that they had all been bred to be pets and not snake food. I wished I could take all of them, but it was impossible. Gingerly, she took out the agouti boy my husband pointed out. She was shocked that my husband held him in his bare hands. We looked him over and agreed to take him. He was quickly shoved into a small box. Then my daughter picked out her favorite girl and I pointed to the platinum one. The two girls were shoved into a bigger box. We bought some more supplies and left, never to return to that store.

The boy was a scrawny little Berkshire agouti scaredy-rat. He was terrified of people, so we left him alone for the rest of the day. He needed a tough-guy name, so I suggested Ben (after the movie rat). Ben has lived up to his name - now he is a huge, cuddly boss rat, about 20 in. from nose to tip of tail. The two girls were a bit friendlier, probably because they still had each other for reassurance. They were very soft - perhaps even satin rats. That's why my daughter named her tan hooded rat Softie (original, isn't it?). My platinum girl's hood was a beautiful grey color, and her fur was as soft as down. Somehow when I looked at her I thought "Snow Goose", which I shortened to Snoogie.

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