Bonnie was soft and little with beautiful big black eyes. She was much smaller than the two boys were and much more curious. She loved exploring everything and everyone. She never stayed still for long and was very fond of playtime. As she got older, she grew enamoured of Rob and would spend the days she was in heat camped out on the lid of his cage, driving the poor guy nuts.
Shortly after Bonnie arrived, I had a dream of being surrounded by white rats, who were crawling all over me. (Most people would interpret this as a nightmare, wouldn't they?) About two days later, I found out about the plight of the YRB rats - how's that for a prophetic dream? I contacted the group that was trying to liberate them and agreed to take seven male rats when they were freed. Over two months later, half the YRB rats were dead, but the rest were finally out of that awful place! We arranged to get our males, but then found out that they were being placed in another state. So, we changed our plans and got eight females, hoping to eventually introduce Bonnie to them all.
When the YRB Eight arrived, they were in terrible shape and were so scared and depressed that they sat in their huge cage refusing to move. They were terrified of people, and I realized it would take forever to socialize them all. In the meantime, they weren't eating or moving at all, so I decided to see if Bonnie could help them out. I put her in the cage and stood ready to rescue her when she was attacked. I needn't have worried. Bonnie immediately understood what I had hoped she would and ran up and down the levels in the cage sniffing and grooming each one. Her energy and cheerfulness seemed contagious. The other girls slowly came alive and watched her activity with interest. Within the hour "Mommy" Bonnie was leading groups of them up and down the levels in the cage and had them all eating and drinking and acting more rat-like.
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