I was at Wal-Mart tonight, visiting my mom (she works overnights), and since I used to work there I know a lot of the people on that shift. My mom ALWAYS talks about my rats. It's really cool, since she used to hate them. But most of the people she works with just kind of do the "Nod and Smile" thing. Whatever.

Anyway, when I was up there tonight I said hi to this one lady. I know rats in general bother her a lot, and when she asks "How are the rats?" I know she's being kind of joking. I tell her fine, and just mention that I'm getting two more at the end of May. She kind of stops and looks at me, says "Wait, how many do you have now?" So I tell her that those two will make 14. She's like "Oh my god. What if they escape?" Then I say, well I don't think they'll ever escape, but if they do I won't lose them cause they're in my room. She looks greatly disturbed by this point and says "You don't sleep with them do you?" For a moment I get this image of me sitting all Willard-like in my bedroom   But I tell her that, yes, the cages are in my bedroom. Then she tells me that that's really creepy, and I say well, if she wants I can bring one of them up to visit her. Anyway, I guess I'm lucky that things like that don't bother me. I rather think people's negative attitudes toward my pets are funny.

On a positive note, I think I've gotten a friend of mine interested in rats. She was at my house last night and I offered to show her my hairless rat. She was really interested, and almost didn't want to leave him   She has a demon possessed hamster that literally attacks anything that moves, so she's a little depressed that she doesn't have a pet that she can really interact with. I told her to let me know if she wanted rats (I emphasized the plural), and that I could hook her up with a good cage, so she could start off the right way. So, we'll see.  

LOL! I'm glad you are able to laugh that stuff off, thats what I do too.  Its kind of fun when people get freaked out a little bit.  

Heck,I was wierd LONGGGGGG before the ratties came!!

that reminds me of pinky and the brain  

If they escape they will bite the faces of infants and spread the plague and rabies, of course!  You made sure to tell her that, right?  Never waste an opportunity to educate.    

Gah! You've uncovered my plan! Foiled again! Mwhahahaha...

 :afro:

I love freaking people out with my rattie stories.  BTW...the very first rat I held and owned IS a nekked girl.  They are awesome.

Same here.
Now I get looks for comparing Hazel to my rats.

Ensie, you are evil. I love it!

Another thing is, at work I asked off for the Saturday the RMFE show is...of course, people want to know where I'm going, why I'm going, etc. It's fun watching their faces when I say I'm going to a rat convention  

aw i almost forgot about pinky and the brain!  I love that show!


Its pinky, its pinky and the brain brain brain brain

When people are ignorant to me, I'm ignorant back.. but add a touch of sarcasm and mockery at their stupidity. I sometimes wish I would be seen as the female version of Willard with Gabriel on my shoulder. Or maybe Jinn.. my nekkid boy. No.. he'd lick you to death. I like the idea of a bumper sticker that says "My rat beat up your honor roll student" or maybe "My rat attacked your honor roll student and gave them rabies and the Bubonic Plague"

"well, that's what the goggles are for.  rats are naturally attracted to human eyeballs."

On the subject of escaping . . . . .  I was woken up one night by a loud rustling noise.  I lay there for a second or two and thought 'yep, that's a rat'.  I got out of bed, went out onto the landing and a little brown shape rushed past me and into the room where their aquarium is (except it isn't now 'cos they've now got a lovely big cage).  I said 'Mitts, you're so naughty' but when I switched the light on I saw I was the naughty one 'cos I hadn't fixed the lid on properly one side.  She'd squeezed out under the lid and couldn't get back in so she came to find me.  Such a clever girl!  I took the lid off and she went straight back in.  I went back to bed and my boyfriend said 'what the hell is going on?'  When I told him what had happened, he said 'I've been laying here for ages trying to convince myself I was going mad and that I couldn't really hear anything."  Good plan - don't switch the light on, wake me up or anything like that, just lay there!  

Oh yes, and I've been weird for years, too - maybe it's a prerequisite to getting ratties, or maybe they're the route back to "normality" (whatever that is).  Or maybe all rat fans are NOT weird, it's just everyone else.  Sounds more likely

we're not weird!  we're just naturally not confined to society's standards of normalcy, thereby leaving us free to get whatever pet we darn well please.

if anybody who knew me personally saw me say that sentence implying that i'm not weird, they'd burst out laughing.  it already happened once today.