Pseudonymous Ramblings by Psychobunny

Playtime with the rats

My entire life right now revolves around class and research. And since the rats do infinitely cuter things than do my professors, research will be the topic of the day. Because the rats need to get used to me so I can learn to dose them, we had playtime today The rats came out in groups to play on the weighing table and get held and petted.

Mandy hasn't tried to escape again, probably mostly because I never take my eyes off her now when she would have a chance. But another rat got pushed off and tried to hide under the table. Yeah, I had a lot of fun trying to retrieve her without being climbed on by all the other rats. Every time I bent over to try to retrieve the rat under the table, seven rats tried to climb onto my back or into my ear canal or burrow between my ponytail and the collar of my lab coat.

This begins my next point. They are so curious about smells. Several of them sniffed my hands until I lost my suspicion of them then tried to eat my fingers (in their defense, their food pellets are about the size of a fingertip. I picked up one rat to pet her and the rest of the rats continued to sniff my open lab coat and my shirt. I thought nothing of it, but then the next thing I felt was a rat up under my shirt, nibbling at my navel. Startled, I backed away from the table as far as I could. The rat attempting to taste my oh-so-delicious belly button lint looked absolutely forlorn. I didn't realize rats had a puppy-dog face, but they do my friend, oh yes they do. Those rats are sneaky.

posted by Psychobunny at 5:42 PM