PP! Where you, the reader, take over and I put my feet up. Send a photo or photos plus a write-up or blurb to peter.b.abrahams@gmail.com. It can be about anything! Almost! And now, to Mary L, for this unusual and wonderful contribution:
Taking a break from the canines, Saint Gertrude of Nivelles Day on Monday reminded me of my dearly departed Madame Curious. Saint Gertrude of Nivelles being the patron saint of deceased rodents. Madame Curious was a fancy rat, a hooded rat. I’m sure you’ve seen stock photos of them. They’re white with black heads and black spots down their backs. They’ve been domesticated and bred since the 18th century. Unfortunately I have no photo of her. I never thought to take one as she was the first pet I’d had since we lost Cuppy and Mitzi.
I was living in a small apartment at the time. I couldn’t have a dog and didn’t know anything about cat ownership. Having a dog would have been difficult as there was no yard of any kind to allow a dog off leash and I was working full time so the dog would be locked in the apartment all day until I got home and I wasn’t home that often.
In addition to my teaching job I was working on weekends at the local Natural History Museum. I showed films on weekends in the auditorium. I also did dancing on the green in the evenings at the local Old Globe Theater but that didn’t pay anything. Additionally I was directing a choir at the local Naval air station. Yeah, four jobs, three of which paid minimally. During the summers I worked temporary secretarial jobs.
Occasionally there would be staff at the Museum on Saturdays because we had live animals in the classroom. Mostly reptiles but there was a crawfish and a tarantula. My boss, the head of the department was Dr Victoria but there were other staff. I remember one day working at my desk in our little office and over the partition I hear the voice of one of the staff saying “Don’t panic, but the tarantula is not in her cage.” Immediately all feet went up off the floor. She was found quickly, still in his office.
The crawfish was named Nixon because his claws were always in the “I am not a crook, Victory position” but when it was found to be a female (I have no idea how) it was referred to as Mrs Nixon.
The snakes never had names. We had a rosy boa and a boa from South America, I don’t remember what kind. The boas were used to being handled as it was a classroom and there would occasionally be K-12 students visiting during the week for the museum’s enrichment programs. I’m not keen on the big spiders but have no problem with snakes and occasionally got to hold them.
Which brings me to Madame Curious.
One week I came in and there was an aquarium with two hooded rats in it. (Dry with a screened lid for those that went there.) Dr Victoria had bought them to provide feeder rats for the snakes. Before you say Eeeew everything has to live. She said it was more humane than feeder mice from the pet store. The mice are big and not only is it stressful, downright terrifying for them to be dropped into the snake’s cages but the mice might injure the snakes. When a rat baby is only a few days old their eyes aren’t open, they have no clue what is going on and they are not in a position to injure the snakes. They’re also about the same size as a mouse. Dr Victoria said I could name the rats. I was doing pre-show dancing on the green at the Old Globe Theater so I named them Elizabeth and Essex, figuring the Virgin Queen could have a little fun vicariously in the afterlife. They were a loving and prolific couple.
When they had babies Dr Victoria asked if I would like one as a pet. I figured that would be a great non-dog option. So the next litter she saved me one and during the week the staff would take turns handling it so it was used to being handled. When it was weaned and old enough, I took it home to a second hand aquarium I had found for free.
My Mother was not pleased. She said if I got a rat she would never visit me. But she did.
The first time she asked where it was and I told her the sewing room but she didn’t go look. The second visit she did look. The third she asked if she could hold it. After that whenever she would visit the first thing she would ask is if could she get Madame Curious out of her cage.
Madame Curious turned out to be a great pet. She was very inquisitive, hence the name. She would sit on my shoulder while I watched TV. Give my ear and cheek little rat kisses, run back and forth from shoulder to shoulder or down to my feet and back up again. She was also very clean, always grooming herself. Rats do not have a smell like mice do. I would always know if the Museum had feeder mice the minute I opened the office door, but not the rats.
Her cage had wood shavings and I would make her a Kleenex box house every once in a while as she liked to chew on them. She got rabbit pellets from the pet store and I would give her vegetables and occasionally a little piece of steak from my dinner. She had a block to chew on and a few toys. Most of her things were for rabbits or guinea pigs.
She was a very good pet but they don’t live very long. 2-3 years if you are lucky. At about 18 months I noticed she was getting a tumor on her chest. Breast cancer. There was no vet to take her to as they only did cats and dogs, plus at the time (this was the early 80s) and keeping a rat as a pet was illegal at the time. When it looked like she was carrying a little basket ball around all the time I tried calling our local medical school university, seeing if a medical student would operate on her to remove the tumor. He started to explain to me how I could do it by sedating her with ether but when he got to the cutting part I stopped him saying I can’t do that. Would any student be willing to do it for practice? He said “Oh no, we start them right away on humans.”
So Madame Curious passed away. I found her lying peacefully in her cage one morning. She was about two years old.
Eventually she was buried in my parents back yard with the rabbits and budgies, but not in the same spot. While all of their graves are unmarked we do try to give them their own little areas.
I’ve occasionally thought of getting another rat but their short life span always stops me. It is hard to grow attached but have such a short time.
She was a very good rat.
4 Comments on “Phriday Photos”
ML — great post and Madame C was a very good rat. Amazingly enough, I once had a pet rat for a year or so while I was in college. I had taken an experimental psychology course during summer session, which included working with rats and basic operant conditioning exercises. At the end of the summer, I did not want my rat to get what I thought would be an unpleasant end, so I adopted him, but was only able to keep him one year, as my living arrangements the following year were not compatible with having a pet rat.
My rat’s name was Marcus Aurelius, so named because he was without a doubt the most stoic rat you would have ever encountered. I think he was singularly devoted to disproving virtually everything that BF Skinner wrote about operant conditioning, as he rebelled against most basic operant conditioning activities. What was amazing was that he was actually somewhat more proficient at complex chaining operant conditioning behaviors, which normally is extremely difficult to teach a subject like a rat, because you have to extinguish and then re-reinforce a series of discrete behaviors. Since he never really got the original behaviors all that well conditioned, the extinction process was not that demanding and chaining went surprisingly smoothly.
In any event, thanks again for Madame C’s story, as it brought back past memories. Marcus, you were a good rat too.
I’d love to read about Marcus Aurelius and his college life. I will assume a white rat? If the lab got them more juveniles or adults than weaned babies could be he had limited human contact so wasn’t that keen on the training, hence the rebellion, but liked the higher level stuff as it gave him something to do out of boredom. Rats are quite intelligent, as I’m sure you know. I hope you found him a good home. They are actually very good pets. They’re smart, affectionate, no body odor like mice and keep themselves very clean. You just have to replace the bedding every week. They are there when you have the time to play with them and they are fine on their own when you don’t as long as they are fed regularly and have a few enrichment toys. I had a wheel for Madame until she got too big. Now they have those flat disc things like a Merry-Go-Round treadmill. She would have loved that.
Wow, ML and WTAFP! I’m amazed! Who’d a thunk it? Little rodents with brains and personalities! One of my nephews was allergic to cats and dogs so their parents got them 2 white rats. My mother was totally grossed out, and never got over it like yours did, ML. I just love Phriday Photos! I always learn something surprising and entertaining about blog fans’ pets, and the fans themselves!
Who knew so many here have connections to pet rats. You can teach them tricks too. Better than goldfish in that you can cuddle a rat.