Kudos to youth contributor Auni Dayton for her great opinion piece [“Rats—The underrated pets,” published Nov. 14] championing the wonderful qualities of pet rats last week. My partner and I adopted a pair of rescue rats last year, and I can concur with her observations of their playfulness, intelligence, and affectionate nature.
In fact, it has affected both of us deeply, getting to know our new animal family members. We were blown away in realizing how the individual personality of each rat is truly so unique.
Of our two boys, one rat is very emotional, excitable, and adoring—eager to lick our faces, impatient to steal our snacks, and thrilled to get up to mischief with incredible feats of climbing and jumping (despite his clumsiness!). His brother is more watchful, careful, and considerate in his approach to the world around him—constantly looking to us for clues during training sessions as he attempts to master new tricks, puzzles, and behaviours. He is so clever and always ready to learn something new.
And despite their difference in disposition, our two rats are deeply bonded. As one currently battles severe respiratory illness, the other is never far from his side. This is one reason why it is so important that a rat always has at least one other rat companion -- they are incredibly social animals who thrive in groups and become lonely without each other.
This leads me to what Dayton also mentioned—that perhaps the biggest drawback of welcoming pet rats into your life is their high risk of certain illnesses and relatively short lifespans.
They are not with us for a long time, so we owe it to them for it to be a good time. Therefore, if a reader of this paper is interested in bringing rats into their lives, we hope that they are prepared to ensure high quality and appropriate nutrition, a clean, safe, and fun environment, and a vet fund on standby so that their rats can receive the same level of care all pets are due. Rats don’t deserve less than other companion animals just because they are small and vulnerable. In fact, given the love and joy our two boys have brought to our lives, we believe they deserve the world.
I hope that everyone has had or gets the chance to experience the same incredible depth of connection and love with an animal that we have. And I once again thank Dayton for her article for bringing to light that animal just might be the humble rat!
Kendal Crawford
Squamish
