Rats - Kind and Congenial Creatures
Rats are probably the most used and tortured animals in Croatian and worldwide laboratory tests. Ten million rats a year suffer and die in questionable, unconfident and non-ethical tests, which are bad science. Researches confirm the thing that every person that lives with a rat knows: rats are smart, wonderful and unusually friendly, clean and kind creatures. They are not pets, they are friends and they give a special peace.
I have had a lot of different pets, but rats are something special.
First I had a male, big white that lived five years and three months before he died, and now I have a female. They are smart, peaceful, wonderful and unusually friendly, clean and kind creatures. It's interesting how this little lady, very young - not even three months old, comfortably places herself in the lap and watches TV with me or plays games! It's true that they really like to cuddle - very unusual.
The interesting story is about my first rat. Many times, when I couldn't fall asleep, I'd let my rat crawl on my bed. I must also mention that in his five years of living he never tried to bite or hurt anybody in any way. As a matter of fact, he was enduring very patiently when kids cuddled and play with him. That night he wanted to jump on my shoulder, but I've moved, so he missed and hit me straight into my eye. Direct hit into an open eye is more than painful. The rat ran hiding in the closest place, but after few seconds he came back and started licking my eye. It's obvious that he knew in some way, that he had hurt me, so he came to comfort and help me. I was amazed and touched by his empathy. I don't even have to say that the rat-crate is in the middle of my living room and that, when I'm home, he freely walks over the couch and armchairs.
There was another interesting situation with my previous rat in a local coffee place. Considering the fact that my rat did rat often go with me around and on my shoulder, he has ended up in a coffee place. At the beginning, people were aghast when seeing him. He was white with red eyes, but he could also be gray from sewage. "Big men" did run... some people thought he's cool, but still there was a man who took him in his hands... and was thrilled! Prejudice bring only bad things... a rat, female, black, yellow... unfortunately, only things that are "ours" are considered as good things.
Now I have "her," and she's still great and I take even better care of her. For a lot of people I'm weird because I have a rat as a... well, she's not a companion animal... she's a friend, because she acts that way and gives an amazing peace... A lot of people don't know that rats give a special peace. A lot of people think that a rat is only "a rat," and keep forgetting that all diseases, everything bad, WE made, and the rats did only have a bad luck to carry it over.
Six years ago my brother and my mother weren't happy because of the rat, but now we can't picture our lives without them. The rats give a special, nonviolent, but a significant family line. It's like we are a part of their nests and family or they feel like a part of our nest or family... Like we've always been living together...
Sinisa Ivkov
![Rat pair [ 47.27 Kb ]](/data/image_2_2543.jpg "Rat pair [ 47.27 Kb ]")
![White rats [ 28.43 Kb ]](/data/image_2_2544.jpg "White rats [ 28.43 Kb ]")
![Experiment on a rat [ 26.67 Kb ]](/data/image_2_2545.jpg "Experiment on a rat [ 26.67 Kb ]")
