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My good friend Olivia Moats of Fresno, California, just sent me these pictures of Tip, her pet rat. Isn’t she beautiful? Tip is the sweetest rat I know—and I’ve met lots of rats—and likes to run in her wheel, eat popcorn and pistachio nuts, and take naps in someone’s sleeve. Tip and her family visited last winter, and she was the perfect house guest—quiet and funny and no trouble at all.
My daughter used to have a pet rat named Tova. We would let Tova out of his cage at times and he’d run around Leah’s room, finding secret places to sleep. When I wanted to find him, I would call “Tova, Tova, futfutfutt,” and out he’d come, waddling and answering, “futfutfut.”
Rats have gotten a bad rap in fiction—think of the evil Templeton in Charlotte’s Web. For another take on rats, you might read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, The Wind in the Willows, and Tor Seidler’s A Rat’s Tale. And then never call someone a dirty rat again.
