Real Rats: Robin Hood's Story
Rob and his brother, Friar Tuck, were the first rats we ever owned. The names weren't the most original, I admit, but my daughter was going through a Robin Hood phase at the time. Rob had a neat hood with a stripe that looked a bit like a sword down his back, and Tuck had a cross, so the names sort of fit....
Robin Hood's name soon was shortened to Rob, and later he would become Robbo the Blobbo. He grew into a big, mellow guy who loved to sit in laps and brux. He loved food, sleep and hanging out on my shoulder, even after he got so big that he really didn't fit anymore. I got strange looks from people in our Brooklyn neighborhood when I walked with him outside, but no one dared say anything nasty to my face with him around!
Rob and Tuck started out living in a 20-gallon long aquarium, but as they grew it looked more and more cramped. Eventually I rigged up a small area for them to be free-range. It consisted of a desktop with their aquarium on it plus a ramp to a windowsill and access to a bookcase and chair on one side and a branch taking them up to the top shelves of another bookcase on the other. Rob loved climbing around in this little world, but Tuck soon got tired of it and figured out how to jump down off the desktop. I was afraid he'd hurt himself one day, so I added some milk crate stairs for them to get down to the floor, and then they had access to our whole bedroom. They were great, well-behaved guys and never chewed anything more than a few sheets and some corners of books and magazines.
After Rob and Tuck reached maturity, they began to fight more and more. It was the classic odd couple thing. Rob loved to sleep and hang out daydreaming on shelves, and Tuck loved to play chase and tag. Rob would get tired of Tuck pestering him to play all the time and would beat him up. Tuck would leave him alone for a while, but then would try to play with him again. One night Rob got so frustrated with Tuck that he chased him, screaming around the bedroom, waking everyone up. After a few failed attempts to bond them again, I gave up. Rob just refused to take any more, and Tuck was just too terrified of him, so they had to be separated. Rob lived in the aquarium, and we bought Tuck a big 3-story ferret cage to run around in. They alternated free-range time in the bedroom.
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