How I Became a Rat Lover... I have always loved animals. My parents bred dogs, cats, and birds, so there were always animals around the house growing up, but they were more my parent's objects of business than family pets. As a child, I always wanted an animal that I could call my own, who would be my best friend, who would bond only with me. I, of course, wanted my own dog, but my parents had something much smaller in mind. While growing up, I had just about EVERY small animal a child can have. I had hamsters, guinea pigs, turtles, hermit crabs, chameleons, rabbits, snakes, parakeets, and fish. None of them satisfied my lust for a dog. They just didn't have the intelligent, friendly, loving nature that a dog possesses. I never even considered having rats as a companion animal because they were sooooo ugly, vicious, dirty, and diseased (or so I thought.) I mean these were considered pests. People paid money to have them exterminated. To me, it would have been like having a pet cockroach! (Which I've also learned can be a fun and interesting companion animal.) When I hit my late teens, my mind became more open to new ideas. I was growing up, learning more about life, and learning that stereotypes were bad for a reason. I was still living at home and still on a desperate search for that perfect animal. Then, one day, I went to go see a movie called The Abyss. In it, one of the characters had a rat companion. It was always on his shoulder, and, in one scene, he actually risked his own life to save it. This was the FIRST time I had ever seen rats portrayed in a positive light, and I was awfully impressed that they could train this rat to sit and stay on his shoulder like that. If you have ever owned a hamster, you know what I mean. I decided to take the plunge and give rats a try, so I adopted Sisco, my very first rat. I was open minded enough to give rats a try, however all those stereotypes were still deeply nested in my thoughts. I was terrified of my rat. I couldn't even touch her tail. I mean, it was so ugly! The thought just grossed me out. I only handled her using gloves for the longest time, terrified that she would bite me. The year this happened, there was no such thing as the Internet, thus no rat information was to be found anywhere. I didn't have a clue. Everything I did, I now know is wrong. This hampered my relationship with Sisco greatly. I didn't know how to enrich her life, how to bring our relationship to its full potential, how to play with her, what she was capable of, anything. Through sheer exposure, she slowly became cuter and cuter to me, if you can believe that, and eventually I didn't even notice that tail of her's any more. Her terribly sweet nature helped me to lose the gloves, and I learned that she would just naturally sit on my shoulder all by herself. It wasn't something I needed to train. Rats just enjoy being with people. Towards the end, I had a completely different outlook on rats - now it was all positive. She was the most lovable and rewarding small companion animal that I had ever adopted. My life grew busy with college, and I didn't have any animals for a very long time. I then got married and had a home of my own. It was a rental, so I still couldn't have that elusive dog, but I could have cats. So I did. I got two. Then we moved to a rental home that allowed a dog, and my dream finally came true! I got Maxx, the best darn dog in the whole wide world! With my two cats and Maxx the wonder dog, I would have thought that all my desires to have pocket pets again would have been non-existent. However, thanks to my sister-in-law adopting a hamster, my desire to care for a rat again was rekindled. In the end, I decided to adopt my blue missmarked female Baku and, eventually, the rest of my clan. The rest is history! Rats are such a special part of my life now. I will never again live without them. Rats are now the most beautiful animals in the world to me, and I can't even imagine how I ever could have thought they were ugly. They are a perfect example of "Don't judge a book by its cover!" Without knowing rats, you may think that they are ugly, but all you have to do is give them a chance. Rats' personalities are of such fantastic properties that they will become beautiful to you before you even know what happened.     "Boy, Mom's hands make the best bed!"