but i've been thinking i'd like a pet. i do have my two cats & dog at my parents' place. however, two things: #1 my apartment is small, too small for my dog & too small even for a litter box. & #2 (more importantly) my dad doesn't want me taking the cats & dog from their place. he likes having them around. so i pay for their food, litter, vet bills, treats, all that good rot & my parents have custody. so i started thinking of other pets. & i'm not a bird or fish person. not really into reptiles, though i don't hate them. BUT, back in '04 i had a rat, johnny the rat, & i really liked having a rat. so i asked my landlady if she'd mind if i got a small pet in a cage & she said of course she didn't mind, so i decided i'd get a couple rats.
on monday, which was memorial day, i went to petsmart to leave my name so that when they got in two dumbo rats from the same litter they could give me a call. i wanted dumbos specifically for a couple reasons. one is that they aren't as popular as regular fancy rats. another is they are really super cute! i think regular rats are cute, but dumbo rats have large round ears (like dumbo the elephant from disney) & their ears are a bit lower set on their head. they also get a bit bigger than normal fancy rats, & they also tend to be a bit more mellower. because they aren't as popular as normal fancy rats i've only seen one in a store at a time, & not all pet stores carry them. i decided to get two instead of one because rats are very social animals, & i didn't want them to get lonely. & while i don't plan on ignoring them, my life can get busy & it's not unusual for me to be gone from home for 16+ hours in a row. so, i figured i'd have to leave my name & they'd give me a call when they got in two rats.
to my shock they actually had two dumbos from the same litter in the store! the boys had been there about two weeks. & they're still little guys, so they were probably around six weeks when they got to petsmart. i really had not planned on getting my pets on monday. my big cage is still over at my friend josh's house in storage, so i got them a kind of medium cage, more than enough room for right now, & decided to get them right then. i figured i have NEVER seen two dumbos at a store at once, so it was fate that they were meant to be my pets.
my first little guy is named anthony (pronounced ant-nee, watch the movie oscar to see what i mean). anthony is an albino dumbo rat. his brother is named leif (pronounced like leaf). leif is cream & white dumbo, his eyes are really dark red, almost black. i did get anthony's name from the movie oscar which i was watching monday afternoon. his personality is kind of like that of the character anthony in the movie, the one that keeps outwitting syvester stalloine's character, snaps. i had tried naming my other little guy snaps, but it just didn't fit. so while i was playing with him tonight i tried out several different names to see what he'd respond to & what fit his personality. he's my little explorer. every time i take him out of the cage he wants to run around & check everything out, so i decided on leif after the viking explorer leif erikson.
here are pictures of my little guys. the first picture is of anthony. he was nibbling on a small puffy piece of food right before i took the picture. the second is of leif just chilling on the penthouse level of their rat condo. he's kind of a ham when i pull out the camera already!
No comments:
Post a Comment