How I got my Best friend.

My name is Aimee and I live with my mom dad and one brother. I also have many pets, which include two dogs, one bird, one chinchilla, and my rat. My rat Anastasia lives in a cage in my room. Everyday while I do school she hears me and wants to play. I will go back to the day I first got her.

On January 28, I got my rat. I wanted a rat for a long time before that, but my dad did not want me to have one. He thought I could not handle the responsibility of another pet in the house. Finally, he gave in after my Uncle came to visit in December. My uncle owns a male rat and told me of all the great things about him. I did some research and read many books. When I thought I was ready to own one, I called some of my local pet shops. At first, I could not find any litters of rats for pets. You must be careful because rats that are in stores bred to be fed to snakes have not been hand raised and tend to be meaner.

At last I found out that on the 28^th of January one pet store would have about eight four week old rats brought in. I was so excited for that day to come. I could hardly wait. When the day finally came, I went shopping to find some supplies. I already had a cage but I needed to find bedding, toys, food, food dish, and a water bottle. At the store, there were many types of bedding to try. I picked pine bedding because it looked like it would be comfortable for my rat. I later found out then neither pine nor cedar are good bedding to get for your rat. They have some kind of chemicals that cause sickness in rats. I then found a few toys. When you are looking for toys you might look around the pet store and see, bird supplies, dog supplies, but wonder where is the rat supplies. Try looking in the rodent section. In that aisle, there is a combination of chinchilla, rat, mouse, ferret, and other rodent supplies. From reading books, I found out, bird toys and ferret toys make good toys for rats too. Try not to get hamster toys. Although they have cool things for hamsters they tend to be small and to week for rats teeth. Almost anything, else you put in the rat’s house it will play with. I also got some food for my rat. I learned that lab blocks are healthiest for you rats but it does not give much of a variety. I also learned that if your pet store does not have rat or mouse food guinea pig food will often work. I spent about $40.00 on supplies. You can see that you must have some money saved to get a rat. The rat is not what cost a lot but the supplies are what you spend your money on. After I got all the supplies I needed I wanted to go get my rat. At night when I went to the pet store, I fell in love with one rat. She was all white and she was the smallest one. I brought her home to cage that I prepared beforehand. I decided to let her get used to her new house. I would take her out tomorrow.

The day that I first got her, she was scared. I do not blame her because she did not know me. Day by day I took her out gave her love and care. Although she did not know me she never bit and never acted aggressive toward me. Soon we became best friends. When I am doing my chores, she will sit on my shoulder; when I play, she is there with me. Because rats are small, they can be easily carried on your shoulder or in your pocket. Rats make great friends. Some of the many things that make them great is their intelligence, their personality, their kindness, and companionship. The three things I do not like about rats are as follows: rats only live three to five years, and their nails at times are as sharp as needles. In addition, rats tend to mark their territory with a drop of urine. Male rats have a tendency to do it more often than females. I have heard that if you get them neutered they will not do it as much. I am not sure if getting the females spayed will help or not. Besides these, rats can become your best friend if you train them and show them you care.