I Smell a Rat!

A couple of years ago we had a terrible rodent infestation in our home. They got into our food storage and ruined quite a bit of our food. We had also found that rats in our shed outside had made a mess and destroyed a few items there. We tried several methods to get rid of them. Finally, after a combination of commercial grade poison and several traps, we got rid of the last perpetrator. Our food storage has been undisturbed ever since, but my animosity towards those critters has not waned.

Last week Jarom had a birthday. He loves animals and wanted some kind of critter. He thought about maybe a lizzard, or a bird. Then he decided that what he really wanted was a rat. Yes, that’s right, A RAT! Well, he’s such a good boy and we didn’t want to tell him no, so we went down to the pet store and let him pick out one. He named him Alvin. As soon as we got home, Samson smelled a rat and wanted it in a big way. We put Alvin in a cage on the kitchen table. Samson was going crazy for the next two hours straight. He wouldn’t leave us alone, because he wanted that rat. A week later now, Samson still goes crazy when he sees Alvin. We are trying to train him to be nice to Alvin, but I’m not sure it will ever sink in.

Did you know that rats are very friendly, smart and they never bite? It’s true. You can train them too. They will come when you call them. It doesn’t take long holding Alvin to get attached to him. He is really quite sociable. Jarom takes him out of his cage several times a day and holds him. I guess a rat is not so bad, as long as he stays out of our food.