Tomorrow Remy (for so I have renamed him, 'Ratatouille' being far too many syllables) will gain a brother -- a rather large rat by the name of Elliot, another hard luck case. Apparently I have 'sucker' written on my forehead, clear for the eyes of the Humane Society to see; I got a call Thursday saying 'so, uh, I just thought I'd call and ask...'.
Elliot was purchased from a pet store, apparently as a (rather large) adult, and taken home to be snake food. I will leave it for those who know more about snakes than I to tell you why this is unwise right there, but the upshot is that said snake looked at Elliot, decided that that was too much rat for dinner, and promptly ignored him. Whereupon Elliot continued to live in the cage with said snake for an undetermined amount of time before being surrendered to the Humane Society.
I was asked, earlier, if perhaps Elliot became accustomed to his surroundings after a while. To which I reply, spend a month in the lion's den. Even if he doesn't eat you right away, your instincts will tell you that eventually, he will. How much stronger are a rat's instincts than ours?
So, yeah, he's all covered in mites and has what is probably an abcess under one ear, likely caused by a mite crawling into his ear and there taking up residence. He'll need some treatment and it'll be about a month before I can even introduce the two of them.
For all of his adventures this is one calm, friendly rat. I met him before work on Friday and he immediately took to me, settling down within a couple of minutes to bruxing (and now I know what that tooth-grinding noise is called, and what it means) and eventually a long bout of washing. After perhaps ten minutes he took a wander through my hair and then settled down for a nap.
He's adorable and I love him already. He and Remy ought to get along fine -- introducing rats usually does go well. I can't wait to bring him home.
Cos...yeah, I'm a sucker. Written right there on my forehead.
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