They are all named after characters in Pratchett and Gaiman's book Good Omens. I've been reading it again, and the names all seem to fit perfectly, so I'm using them. The last time I had to name a large quantity of rats, I took the names of desserts from the Beatles' song, Savoy Truffle, and regretted it very much when one of them was eaten by his mom.... "Snoogie ate Pineapple" doesn't sound that bad, but it sure was awful! Anyway, we now have - get ready for it! - Adam, Agnes, Albus, Anathema, Azzie (short for Aziraphale), Beryl, Crowley, Faith, Jezzie (short for Jezebel), Mary, Nanny, Pepper, Sable, Scarlett (a PEW hairless girl - freaky-looking, but beautiful!), Tracey and Warlock (a handsome hooded hairless dude, say that 6 times fast!)
I don't know what it is about names, but now that they've got them, they all seem like they belong here. How do breeders do it, I wonder? Maybe they don't name the little ones? How can you part with something you've given a name to? Or is it just me that has a problem with this? I'm not sure I want to try to breed rats anymore - I doubt I'd be very successful at it. I don't think it's possible for me to have an animal in the house for more than a few days without naming it, and after that, well, it's home to stay!
Collectively the babies have a name as well - you can't enter the quarantine room without being greeted by rats jumping up and down like crazy, swarming all over. So, they have become The Swarm. The 10 girls are in a wire cage, and they all jump up to the top and slide down the sides like droplets in a waterfall. The 6 boys all hang from the plastic rim around the edge of their big aquarium until their arms give out and they drop with a thump and pop right back up again like popcorn. They weren't always this way - it took them just over two weeks to get comfortable with us. They used to all run and hide in their boxes when they saw someone coming, and it was really hard to believe that we had any rats in there at all. Not so now! Now it looks like a scene out of one of those "horror" movies with rats running rampant everywhere. But, of course, it's the most wonderful sight in the world, for me.
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