Monday, December 21, 2009

Do you know Lucy?


This is Lucy, she is our Norway rat. We got her for Chinese New Year two years ago which was the year of the rat. I was having issues downloading some of the photo's i have of her - so only have a couple.
She is a sweet little rat and i thought i would never come to like her, but honestly a day probably does not go by where i don't stop and say hello to her now.
Our favorite thing has become the vacuum cleaner. I noticed a while back that every time i vacuumed she was out trying to get my attention? She loves the cat's food so i started dropping some into her cage and now we have a little ritual. She hears the vacuum and jumps on her boxes and gets on her hind legs to touch the wire mesh at the top of the cage. I then drop a cat morsel into her mouth and either she drops down and puts it into her claws to eat in front of me or collects 2-3 of them and then goes to eat. What is interesting is she almost always jumps down and goes into her little "home" - but she is so comfortable with me, I now can tap the cage and she comes out to meet me and get food from me.
I yet have been comfortable to hold her, that is Scott's job as you see in the photo, this is what we try and have him do once a wk so she gets more social interaction. I pet her, but the tail and claws i am just not comfortable with yet.
Her home is another funny thing. Since Scott is and Entomologist he works for a pest control company and they put out these little black boxes (traps) outside buildings - usually commercial and trap rats and other rodents. We thought it would be funny to have an unlocked one become her home and she happens to love trap. We feed her lots of our garbage food, but the cat food is her favorite.
She gets along fine with the two cats and have even touched noses with Lily, but i would never leave the two alone :-) The kids love our little Lucy and around dinner time we can hear her little teeth gnawing her water bottle and rush over to her cage to say hello. So cardboard boxes, paper, even Reagan's old sneaker make it to the cage for her to play with. She loves keeping busy tearing paper and boxes to nest herself. Who would have thought i would tolerate such a thing in my home? Funny is Lucy and I are the ones who are tight these days?
Lavonne 12-21-09

3 comments:

Amy Rankin said...

We are currently out of the "fuzzy little creature" business...too many cats here now (6). But we have done rats, mice, hamsters, etc. and actually enjoyed them!
Love your blog make-over!
Amy

One Happy Momma said...

I loved meeting Lucy. What a sweet rat she is!

Cathy

Jill said...

Lucy is adorable Lavonne. We have a hamster who is Queen of the house. Her stocking was the biggest one this year! She is getting older, slower, and gray, so we wanted to make her Christmas special. She got a stocking full of natural nuts and dried berries, chewies, and freeze-dried strawberries. I have heard that rats are super-smart. That will probably be our next small pet. I never imagined that either, but I am really drawn to them at pet stores, and no it's inevitable. :) Enjoy Lucy.