The best rat ever. Oscar is the reason I'm into rodents. I had been looking at mice initially. I saw a cage of rats at a petstore (at the Fox Hills mall in Culver City) and this one albino in particular, who would come right to the edge of the cage, walking up on his back legs, then reach out of the cage like a kid asking for candy. He was really funny. He'd play with my finger through the cage. I ended up getting him and one of his brothers (Felix).

Once I got them home, they both were so shy all of a sudden, they wouldn't let me get near them. For a couple days, I wondered if I had made the right choice. Then, from the advice in someone in alt.pets.rodents, I put a t-shirt on and a sweatshirt over that, tucking them both in. I lied on the couch and took both rats and put them under the sweatshirt. At first, they sat there, terrified I guess, before they finally started moving around. They tried to exit through the sleeves and the neck, but I made them stay in. They needed to learn my scent. I left them in there for a half hour. The trick worked great.

It was amazing. From that moment on, they loved me. They both loved to ride around on my shoulder and whenever I was near their cage, would want to come out.

Oscar became the more affectionate one. He always wants to be on me.

Although I have no plans of ever entering any of my rodents in shows, I'm sure if Oscar was in one, he'd win most affectionate. He loves humans. He more like a little puppy than a rat. He's always standing right by my feet when I'm in the kitchen, begging for treats. When he's in his cage and I come in, he starts jumping all around and climbing all over, begging to come out. When I open the cage, all the rats head for the door to go exploring, except for Oscar. He heads to me.

Oscar doesn't chew on any doors or furniture or wires. He doesn't wreck any of my clothes. He doesn't fight with his step-brothers, except to play. Outside of trying to get into the garbage all the time, Oscar is about as perfect a rat as one could want.

When people come over, they're amazed at how nice he is. He loves to be pet. When I take him in the car with me, he'll spend a good portion of the trip on my lap.

***

Oscar passed on December 6, 1998 from stomach cancer. Everytime I feed, play or hang with the others, I think of Oscar.

Felix, Oscar's blood brother, loves to wreak havoc. It's hard to believe this is the same little, timid rat that I brought home that May afternoon. Right at about the six month old range, he started getting overly playful with his brother and step-brothers. He chases them down, wrestles them hard and holds them in his pin until they squeal and I come over and break it up. It used to be Oscar was the dominant rat. No more. Felix is king. Occasionally Oscar will win a fight with him, but mainly, Felix kicks everyone's butt.

He is also the one who tries to go against my wishes more than one of them. I throw him in his cage every time he starts gnawing on the door frame. Once he comes back out, knowing that I get mad, he goes to the same door frame.

He is a very active guy. He's always moving and exploring and trying to find new trouble to get into. He is also the only rat I have that will climb onto the tub rim when I'm taking a shower, despite the fact he hates getting a bath. He'll sit there and peak around the curtains.

He'll play, but with him, one has to be careful. He gets in these moods where he starts huffing and puffing and you can see his fur standing up on end. I made the mistake of messing with him when he was in one of those moods and he took a nice bite out of my finger (which was my fault of course).

Like his brother, Felix always wants treats. If I'm in the kitchen, he'll sit on my foot until I give him something. And there is no bigger pack rat than Felix. He has stuff stored all around the house, in every corner. I'll be vacuuming the living room and there will be a piece of cheese, a piece of banana and a ferret treat behind the stereo. He also wants to get into whatever I'm doing at the moment. I might be sitting on the floor taking notes about something, and he'll want that exact paper I'm writing on. He'll finally settle for another blank piece, of which he'll put by his cage, but then later come back for that original piece he wanted.

Unfortunately, it looks like Felix will be the first rat I have that will be "fixed." He gets too aggressive with his step-brothers and like I said, he gets in that "huffy-puffy" mood where you really have to stay away from him. On the advice of others, I think I'm going to end up getting him neutered, as to calm him down.

***

After Felix was fixed, he became a gentle, playful baby. He’s put on a little weight. He fathered seven babies (three of which I kept) just before he was fixed, but at this time, they can beat him up. They wrestle but without his balls, Felix is no match. He is still the one who basically has run of the house most of the time, as he is the only one who gets along with everyone.

Born June/98

Luke is my third rat (outside of one I had for a week). He is probably the smartest of the herd. There is a big petstore by my house called Katies, in Culver City, which is a nicely kept store. I'd go in there occasionally to look at the rodents. There were these five babies, all looking exactly alike; little hooded two week old babies. They were really small and looked like they shouldn't be away from their mom, yet I never saw any parent. They were the most playful little rodents I've ever seen. After I saw them, I'd come in every couple days just to check up on them. As they grew bigger, I'd put my hand in the cage. They'd all come jumping on my hand. It was hilarious. I knew I was going to have to have at least one of them.

Two went to some girl (who I know got them for pets as I saw the notes on the cage regarding saving them for her). Three were left. One was female, so I knew I could only get one (because I couldn't leave the girl by herself and I couldn't take the girl since I have all boys). When the time came that they were old enough to purchase, I got one, which I took home can called Luke (after the my favorite movie of all time, "Cool Hand Luke" which is an apropos name if there ever was one).

Oscar and Felix both took to Luke right away. In fact, Felix really kind of took him "under his wing." I'd notice Felix was always licking Luke and sleeping next to him.

Luke loves to play. He'd chase anything. I'd drag a piece of string on the floor and he'd chase it for days. He also loves to jump on his step-brothers. Despite being a third their size, he'd never think twice about jumping between them when they were wrestling. And he loves to "wrestle" with my hand.

But he also lived up to his name. This guy was far and away the most aggressive at trying to escape and hide.

When I'd put the three on the couch, Luke, despite the fact he was three months younger than Oscar and Felix, was the first to discover how to get off the couch. It got to the point where I could only put Luke on the couch if I was watching him all the time. He'd get off, then hide underneath, or go into the kitchen and hide under the stove or 'fridge.

For the longest time, despite learning his name pretty quickly, I couldn't let Luke play outside my room, because he'd always end up hiding somewhere when it was time to go back in the cage, and not come out when I'd yell his name. He knew it was bedtime and didn't want to go.

He's gotten a lot better at coming out now, but will still pull that "I'm not coming out" thing occasionally and he finds new hiding places all the time, that the other guys never thought of. He is still the only one who gets up in the bedroom window and relaxes behind the curtain. He's always finding new places in the living room, and then "shows" them to the other guys who use them too. But as Luke reaches adulthood, he is also becoming a very, affectionate pet too. He, like Oscar, wants to get up on my shoulder a lot and more and more, he comes to my lap to be pet. His fur is really nice too. Very shining and colorful. Although from farther away, his "hood" appears to be black, upon a closer look, it's a few different shades of brown.

He gets along with all the rats and any humans the come over. He's not afraid of anything (except getting a bath) and is really a well behaved rodent. Another good example of why rats are great pets.

I took him home and put him with the Big Three (Oscar, Felix & Luke). I named him Monty (after Monty Clift) and right away, Monty took to his new stepbrothers. He, just like he did at the petstore, was super active and wanted to play all the time. Felix would by lying there, dozing off and Monty would jump on the far bigger rat trying to get him to wrestle. Sometimes he would and sometimes he wouldn't. It was just funny to watch this little critter move around so much. I keep their cage in my room, and at night they're all pretty quiet, except Monty, who is shuffling around and trying to get the others to play with him. Never has a little rodent had so much energy.

I was glad to have Monty too, because I wanted to have four rats, so I could take two with me when I go out of town, and rather than leaving one behind by himself, there were always be two, and not a single rat who would be lonely. Monty got along great with everyone, especially Oscar. Oscar, like Felix did with Luke, seemed to take care of Monty (maybe because they are both albinos?).

One day, Monty was walking funny, shaking his head all over the place and running in circles. I took him to the vet.

The vet wasn't sure what had happened to him. Either he had an ear infection, hit his head on something or had a stroke. She gave me some medicine and had me separate him from the others, as she said if it was an ear infection, it could be airborne and transferred to one of the others.

 I set up Monty in the old 25 gallon tank that Oscar and Felix lived in when they were first brought home and I gave him his medicine three times a day. It was hard to give to him because his head was always moving around, but I managed. The thing was, he was messed up, but didn't seem to know. As soon as he would see me, he would jump up and down and want to play. It was bizarre.

Monty spent about a month in quarantine. His head shaking seemed to go down a little, but he was still messed up. I gave him his medicine and finally realized he wasn't going to get any better, coordination-wise. And it appeared it wasn't an ear infection, but a stroke.

But since he didn't seem to even know he was "messed" up and appeared to be as happy as ever, I put him back with the others. Talk about an overjoyed little guy. He was so excited to be back with his stepbrothers. He jumped on all of them and played and acted like nothing was wrong, which outside of his physical condition (that didn't seem to bother him at all), nothing was.

He has been fine ever since. Monty is far and away the most vivacious of the group. He's always moving and always wanting to play. I'm talking anytime he's awake. When he's out of his cage, he's running around. He'll stop for a second to have a treat, then it's back to running around. Outside of his condition, he's far and away the most spirited of any of the rodents. He has no idea of his coordination problem. All he knows is when he's out and there's room, he can play. He loves to be around the other rats. I don't know if he'll have another stroke or any other problems. But as long as he's happy, he's okay and what time he has left will be good. And he may live as long as the rest of the rats. He's grown so much, sometimes I can't tell him and Oscar apart.

The only real problem is that he is so uncoordinated, he's always bumping into stuff or falling out of his cage (before I can lift him out myself). He walks in front of my feet sometimes when I'm not noticing him and ends up getting booted into a wall, where he simply gets up and runs around some more. The other rats play with him and sometimes end up throwing him around. Again, he just gets up, "brushes" himself off and continues playing.

Monty is a fun loving, funny guy. I hope he lives a full life.

***

Monty still runs and plays and is generally the most happy of all my rats. Because of his condition, he’s still a weird little guy and at this writing, lives in a cage by himself. He can’t be around any other rats without fighting, and I mean fighting. He’s next after Luke to get fixed and I’m hoping after that, he’ll be able to live with the others again. I have having the little guy by himself so much.

Born July/98 – Died June 12, 1999

Claude is the fifth one out of the bunch. He's a very good looking cream colored little guy, about a week or so younger than Monty. Claude (named after the "Invisible Man" Claude Rains), was purchased from the same store I got Luke, Katie's Petstore in Culver City. I actually got him when I thought Monty was going to die, so Luke would have a companion when I took Oscar and Felix out of town with me.

Since Monty is fine, Claude is the fifth wheel (which is no problem).

Like my others, when I think that Claude may have ended up as snake food, I cringe. Claude is the second most affectionate rat I've had next to Oscar. And he's really, really funny. For some reason, he is deathly afraid of Felix. And because of this, Felix takes advantage of him and picks on him more so. But if Claude wasn't so wimpy and fought back sometimes, Felix might leave him alone. As it is, Claude runs like a scared kindergarten kid whenever he sees Felix near him.

 I'll be holding Claude in my room, petting him and he's loving it, and suddenly Felix will pop up. Claude will scream like a little girl. I mean, he'll open his mouth and make a face like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. He'll jump literally a foot in the air. When he comes down, like a cartoon, he'll be facing the other way and scamper off to hide. It's so funny. No matter what I do, I can't get Claude to like Felix. And Felix doesn't care. He just bullies Claude when he can. So much of the time, I'll be sitting in the living room, hear a squeal, Claude will come barreling from around the corner and jump in my lap for protection.

Because of this, I can't house Claude and Felix in the same cage. This was a problem I didn't want to have but since I'll never give up Claude, I'll have to work with it. I keep Claude and Monty in the 25 gallon aquarium, away from the other three, who stay in their cage at night.

Monty and Claude are okay in that tank and I let them out pretty much the whole time I'm home, but I'd rather they lived in the cage with the others. I've tried to put Claude with the Felix in the cage but it doesn't work. Felix will be sitting on the other side of the cage, his back facing Claude as he eats, and Claude screaming like a baby.

But because he's such a baby, he actually gets some privileges the others don't usually get. When I got to bed, I'll generally watch a little TV before I sleep, so I let the rats run around the room for a while. As I get tired, I put them in their cages. But I usually let Claude run around a little by himself before I put him away. He seems to be at his most excited self during this time. He doesn't have to worry about Felix picking on him and Monty can't jump on him to play, so he really takes advantage of this "free time" to play and jump and hang on me.

And a lot of the time when I let the boys run around my room, I'll take Claude out and let him run around the house by himself. This way, I don't have to worry about Felix picking on him.

Claude loves for me to hold him. He's always climbing on me every chance he gets. He loves to be pet. He'll cuddle up on my arm, tuck his head in and enjoy the petting.

 And he is the best looking of all my rodents. His cream colored fur is really shiny and short, ,with a white belly. He looks like a show rat and is the one most girls who come to my house, want to pet the most. Yeah. That's right. Claude is a chick magnet.

***

One June 11, I came home to find Claude outside his cage, lying on the kitchen floor looking sickly. He’s been staying in a separate tank with Luke until I can get them both fixed since they were fighting too much with the others. I don’t know how Claude got out of this tank since I weight the lid down with stuff, but I think he hurt himself somehow getting out. He was breathing funny. I looked for anything broken and couldn’t find anything, but he seemed to be having problems breathing. He would move from one end of the room to the other, then lie there, breathing fast, not moving. I would pet him and he would acknowledge it, but I could see he was on his last legs.

When I went to bed, I put Claude on the "table" next to my bed, which is covered by a wool blanket the rats like to lie on all the time. I put towels around him and made him comfortable. I wanted to be able to check up on him throughout the night. He stayed right there most of the night and each time I checked on him, he was still breathing, but not too much else.

The next morning, he had moved out into the living room and was lying on the couch (in what was probably his favorite spot). He was still in the same condition. I didn’t know how much longer he’d last. I pet him for a while and tried to get him to eat, but he wouldn’t eat anything at this point. I had to go work and I was hoping Claude would at least make it through the day until I got back, but then again, if he was suffering, I wanted him to pass.

When I got home later that day, Claude had moved back into my bedroom and had passed right by my bed on the floor. He looked like he was sleeping. I knelt down and felt him and he was barely cold, so it had to have been within the hour that he had wnt.

I’m very sad that he passed, but I take comfort in knowing that he had a really good life in the 11 months he had and that he didn’t die in the stomach of some snake. He was liked by humans and his rat brothers and I miss the little guy. 

When I initially purchased him, he was sitting in the corner sleeping and didn't put up much of a fight when we took him out. He pretty much sat in one place the in the cage the whole time I had him. Within a couple days, I realized he was just sick. I knew he was going to die. So I took care of him the best I could until he passed on. I went back to that petsop (Allen's Petshop on Lincoln blvd in Venice). Apparently it appears all the rats have the same disease. They all look sickly and breath funny. It's that same staccatoed breathing that Boo boo had. Of course, the people at the shop couldn't care less about the rodents. To them, they're just snake food.

I've also bought a couple mice there too (they have some amazingly beautiful mice and they're all there for snake food). Each time, I would say "I just want two girls" and the person would act like I was putting them out by asking for a specific gender, or say "I can't tell the difference" in which case I would do the picking (which is how it should be in the first place).

A couple of the mice I purchased there died a few weeks later too, although a couple others are still alive and happy. I feel bad for the rats there. Like I say, they couldn't care less about them at that place, and it shows.

After having the little rat for a while, I noticed it was getting big. Turns out Brooks was a Brook. Impregnated by Felix, Brook produced seven little babies: three boys and four girls.

In June of 1999, Hercule came down with a respiratory disease. He fought it hard and for a while, seemed to have gotten better. But it quickly came back and took the tough little guy. Generally when one of my rodents dies, I take comfort in knowing that the animal died in my home and not in some snake’s mouth. Hercule is the first rodent I’ve had who was born here and died here. He had a good life. He was a super fella’ and I miss him.

Dusty is the smartest rat I’ve ever seen. He does things and goes places the other rats haven’t even come close to. He loves to be pet and he loves to wrestle. He is the spitting image of his mom Brook and really got her intelligence too.