Some people say that pet rats aren’t like wild rats. What do they have against wild rats? It was wild rats that got me hooked! I used to live in a house that harbored two wild rat colonies, one of Rattus norvegicus, the other being Rattus rattus. I established diplomatic relations with the Rattus norvegicus.

The Norway rats lived between the floorboards of the ground floor and the ceiling of the basement. I lived in the basement. The rats would pass through from time to time, and I would call out to them, making squirrel-like chattering noises. They always took interest.

Once an adolescent rat was so intrigued that he came within 6 feet of me. When he reached a line that he dared not cross, he stretched forward as far as he could, like the difference between a rectangle and a parallelogram.

Several people had stuff stored in the basement, and they all had problems with rat damage. But I established territory, and the rats respected it. I hissed at them whenever they ventured into my stuff, and they came to leave it alone.

Rattus rattus is a tree rat, whereas rattus norvegicus is a ground rat. The tree rats used to live in the attic, and only rarely ventured onto the ground floor. But the homeowner decided to drive them out by dusting the attic with over a pound of cayenne pepper.

The tree rats proceeded to establish residence on the ground floor. Some of them moved into the piano, damaging the felt hammers. They had really long tails and really big ears. I caught a baby Rattus rattus inside a potato chip bag, and kept her as a pet. Since she was terribly lonely, I did the best I could, and got her two baby Norway girls for company.

That’s how, after a thirty-year hiatus, I got re-hooked on pet rats.