If someone were to do this to a puppy or kitten it would be considered animal cruelty. Why not for rats?

A Winston-Salem woman used a plunger and an empty container of kitty litter to wrangle a rat back into her toilet before flushing it.

In this video she says, “I was as scared of it as it was of me.”

Somehow I doubt that. I mean, what is so scary about a tiny little rat? Can you imagine how the poor rat felt having a giant after it.

And, yes rats can swim up into your toilet though sewers, but flushing it back down would be like taking your average person and dropping them in Grade 6 white water rapids.

How sad is it that one rat sighted warrents the closing of an entire school!

I mean, do the parents really feel like a rat is going to decend from the air vents and attack their children?

Read more about it:

Rat sighting closes Saugus school, again

Remember me posting a couple of days ago about a new species of rat being discovered?

The Giant Wooly Rat, or Bosavi wooly rat, was discovered in an unexplored crater in New Guinea.

Well, now there is video of this rat, at night, in its natural habitat.

What I want to point out is around 1:27 in the film.  The people are PETTING this wild rat, scratching it like a pet.  Remember, this is a WILD rat, it is a GIANT rat as large as your average housecat, it has no fear of humans, and yet its letting itself be scratched.

More proof that rats are not vicious evil little demons.

Francis got to meet Nibbitz and One of Two, and this is the single most easy introduction EVER.  Nibbitz did force groom Francis some, but there have been no fights, and no squealing from ANY of them!  Its amazing!

I introduced them in the aquarium that I put the girls in when I’m cleaning their cage:

In this first one Nibbitz looks like she is smiling!

Nibbitz and Francis interacted more than One and Francis did. (one is in the back)

Francis says she wants to get out now:

And here is some video of lots of sniffing an a little gentle grooming.

So, a couple of days ago I was checking my e-mail for this blog (mail4rats@gmail.com if you ever want to share something rattie with me) and saw that I had gotten an e-mail from a girl here in Savannah trying to help A friend re-home a rat.  She said the friend coudln’t give the rattie the attention it needed, and she (the girl e-mailing me) has the rat now but has turned out to be allergic to it!

The e-mail was simply asking if I knew of any rat rescues in Savannah, which I sadly dont BUT…..

I offered to bring her home with me.  The girl took me up on the offer, and tomorrow when I get off work we will be going to her house to pick up my new baby.

It is a grey female rat named Francis.

So, of course there will be rat pictures galore in the future.

But for now, here is some video of Nibbitz and One of Two playing in the tub.

For lack of anything of any real interest to report on my fuzz butts, and having done no cute rat crafts lately, I share with you two very short videos.  One of each rat.

First, here is Nibbitz:

And here is One of Two:

I love the look on her face when I’m swinging her around to the desk.

So, when I ran a tub full of bubbles today my dogs thought they were going to get a bath.

Nope.

Neither was I going to get a relaxing soak in a tub of bubble.

Nope.

It was my bi-weekly rat cage scrub down:

And, I downloaded the videos from from hubbys camera last night, and goign through them found one of Ezri on the sofa with me.  It was a few weeks before she went donhill and we lost her.

Its a little dark, but here is my Much Missed fat rat Ezri Belle

Rats are one of the top animals tested on for medical experiments.  I’ve always been torn by this knowledge.

Part of me realizes its necessary.  That modern medicine gets better in leaps and bounds by this experimentation.

A bigger part of me is horrified.  Horrible, horrible HORRIBLE things are done to these animals in the name of science. 

Some of it is cosmetic science as opposed to medical science.  That’s even worse.

While the possibility of finding a cure or better treatment for painful and life threatening diseases might be worth some experimentation, the better quality of your makeup is not worth a rats pain and suffering.  Its just not.

So I’m not 100% for animal testing, nor am I 100% against it, but I am 110% for them trying to lessen the cruelty a little.  Its not necessary to grow an ear out of a rats back, its not necessary to kill baby chickens to study whether they possibly used to be dinosaurs (saw that one on the discovery channel), its not nessary to spray hairspray or perfume in an animals face to see if it might hurt some.  Its NOT!

If you want to buy things that are not tested on animals, visit Caring Consumer and do a search or two.

Here is the video that made me start writing this blog entry:

But, if you still dont care one way or another what happens to the poor rats, remember that animal testing is done on more “socially acceptable” animals as well.  Bunnies, monkey, even cats and dogs and more are tested on.

*EDIT*  I had Previously called Dash a HE, when in fact Dash is a beautiful little girl.  Sorry Dash!

Sent to me in an e-mail is this weeks Blockbuster, cliffhanging, edge of you seat thriller.

Will Dash ever get the ping-pong ball INTO the rat hotel?  And who is the mysterious dark stranger who pops up to try and steal her prize?

Happy 2009 to all my friends.  Sorry we went MIA, but December is a horrible month that should be wiped from the calender as it makes me want to hide under a bed crying until its over.

All better now though.

We’ve won a couple of awards. 

FeatherFurFin gave us:

AND fancyrat.net gave me:

Now, until I can get a real blog update written, here is a cute video of a loving rat and its very patient friend.

Rat Loves Cat - The most amazing bloopers are here