The Rat: Much too smart for humans!

 

Scientists consider the rat the only mammal which can never be exterminated completely by mankind (and what exactly is kind in mankind?). Rats can handle air pollution, they live in hot and cold climates, they thrive in gutters and can enter rooms where a human not wearing a gas mask is doomed.

Rats do eat everything. If there is no food around, they eat soap, old shoes or paper. Pet rats also have a special taste for cables. Vital cables, like phone, modem and TV/Hi-Fi cables. They will also eat condom wrappers since those smell of strawberry. (Aww, Shelley! Let go of that wrapper! It's NOT a strawberry!!)

 

Kill 90 % of a rat population - six months later, the population is back to normal and strong.

 







Rat females synchronise their cycles. They all get their babies around the same time, which allows them to adopt orphan rat babies. This strategy boosts the survival of a rat population from 20 % to 80 %.

 

Did you know that rats can inherit their mothers' sweeth tooth? A rat foetus obtains the scent of certain favorite foods of his mother thru the placenta. So, after birth, the baby rat will love the same food as his/her mother.

There even is a theory that rats can inherit information about different poisons laid out to kill them. Whenever a rat dies of a certain poison, no other rat from the pack will ever try the poison again.

 

If the rat population is too dense, the females become infertile or they absorb their unborn babies. Since a female rat copulates up to a hundred times per day with loads of male rats (!), she can chose from which sperm she wants to be impregnated. Female rats have a perforated vagina exactly for this reason.

Rats are very social animals. They accept unfamiliar rats into the rat pack without bloody fights, unless the new rat does not learn the existing hierarchy. Rats are only aggressive towards other animals if they feel threatened, or if they suffer hunger or overpopulation. In this case, rats can even attack dogs and humans.

Broken teeth grow back, rats need to sharpen and shorten their teeth continuously.

Pet Rats like to sharpen their teeth on objects dear to the human they live with. This is a scientific fact. Do you have a favorite chair, inherited from your great-great-grandmother? No sweat, your pet rat will lovingly decorate it with intricate structures of rattie teeth marks.

If there is no old and precious furniture around, pet rats are known to disagree with the current choice of wallpaper and help you tear it down, so you can replace it.

And if your pet rat feels, you spend way too much time on the phone, no problem. These teeth can gnaw thru a phone cable in 1.3 seconds flat.

 

Rats are very acrobatic animals. They can swim for three days (72 hours) without stopping, they jump over distances up to 1 m wide and 70 cm high. They are very good with their little hands, even able to catch fish with them. They can jump out of the fifth floor and don't hurt themselves. If they want to, they can climb housewalls and hunt the pidgeons.

 



Pet Rats use their great climbing ability to conquer the human they live with - mostly in search of food.

Pet rats do not care how much your pantyhose costs. They see it as a great opportunity to climb Mount Human and check him/her for food.

They are also insensitive to climate changes, meaning, when the human no longer wears long pants and sweat shirts but shorts and t-shirts, they happily climb and crawl over arms and legs, leaving neat little bloody scratch marks behind.

What a cute animal! I would not ever trade my Shelley for any other animal! Scratch marks and ruined pantyhose or not!