Meet Pendleton!

 

Everyone, meet Pendleton!

Pendleton, everyone. 

He's the latest addition to the 710 household, and he's settled in quite nicely! 

Our friend was looking for a home for the poor fella and needed to give him away, so I volunteered. Antho supported it, so here we are. Pendleton's about a year old and he's a bouncy little boy. He loves free roaming our bathroom, eating snacks, and snuggling up in my computer chair. Rats are naturally very social animals, so to compensate for his lack of a cage mate we interact with him frequently and let him out often. He's happily nestled in to my lap now. ^_^ He keeps me company while I write and is very well behaved- he never climbs over the keyboard or very far from my lap. If he ventures too far onto my desk, I can call to him gently and he'll scamper back within range. He's especially fond of hoods, and will curl up and ride around in mine for trips downstairs.

He's not my first pet, and certainly not my first rodent, but he is my first rat. 

With all the information freely available on the internet, I was able to learn a lot about how to appropriately handle him and how best to bond. Rats, being such social little guys, need to develop bonds of trust before they'll really open up but once they do they're absolutely lovely! Clever and cuddly, if I ever go too long without petting him he'll definitely let me know by nuzzling my hand. They need a lot of stimulation to keep from getting bored, so we've stocked his cage with all sorts of toys and chew things. He seems happiest with me in the computer chair, though, and will sit happily bruxing and boggling away as I rub behind his ears. ^_^ I'm not going to lie- having earned the trust and affection of such a small, fragile creature makes me feel really good. Like, Disney Princess good. Rats have every reason to be wary, being fodder for a wide variety of predatory animals, humans often among them. 

Fears of catching the plague are nil, as rats have been exonerated. Good thing we didn't adopt a gerbil! ;) 

Do you have any pets?