After entertaining us for a week or so, Mr. Mouseinthewall escaped when I attempted to transfer him and his new, much tamer friend to the big cage. The children left a note, "Mr. Mouseinthewall come home," but to no avail. Very sad.
That left the problem, again, of not wanting to be unkind to a rat by keeping him without a companion, so I went to the pet store for a companion rat for the original companion rat.
Unless one desires bazillions of rats, the standard approach is to keep rats of the same gender, so I picked out a cute little white rat from the selection of small males and brought him home to live with companion rat number one, now named Lucky.
We named the new rat Squeek, because he squeaks a lot. But I noticed that Squeek didn't just squeek. He had a definite case of the sniffles. I called the pet store and they said take him to the vet, and they would refund the expense. So I did. Squeek cost $5.99, and the vet bill was $47.00. After a round of Augmentin didn't help, the vet said bring him back and he would keep him overnight for observation. By this time, Lucky had caught Squeek's cold, so I brought them both.
The veterinarian prescribed a different antibiotic (a veterinary version of Cipro) and told me, "By the way, Squeek's a girl."
So I drove from the vet to the pet store to show them Squeek and figure out what to do next.
The pet store manager agreed that Squeek's a girl, so very sadly, I said goodby to Squeek and accepted a refund. Squeek had lived with us for a couple of weeks and endeared herself to everyone in the house. That pet store was out of small male rats, but the other branch of the store across town had some, so I drove Lucky to pet store outlet number two and picked out a companion rat for him. Lucky's getting big (he weighs 280 grams now), so the best way to get him to accept a companion is to select the youngest rat possible. As it turns out, pet store branch number two had just gotten some small male rats, so they were really young. Lucky immediately accepted the one I picked out, so I brought them both home.
Now, here's where you come in.
We can't come up with a name for this little fellow. Everyone in the house thinks he's about the cutest thing they've ever seen, but we can't figure out what to call him.
Any suggestions?
Best wishes,
Jerry
