Welcome to Rat patooty

Let us introduce you to our 4 ratties -
Seth: And ourselves
Nat: Oh yeah...I'm Nat! (waves at screen)
Seth: And I'm very far away from the keyboard
Nat: But don't call him that @_@ He gets antsy
Seth: What?
Nat: O.O (<- is staring at him)
Seth: So our rats.
Nat: YES! Let us begin at the beginning, a very good place to start indeed.

For his birthday this year, I was going to buy Seth some pet ratties because he had pet ratties before and wanted some now that we were out of university housing. So while I was at work, Seth called the pet shop and asked if they sold rats, luckily, they said they did and that they were getting a litter of dumbo rats in that very day and his heart grew 3 sizes that day. So he walked all the way to the pet shop and it was miles and miles away through blistering heat and scorching high street.

Seth: It was really hot the day I went actually.
Nat: Quiet you, I'm telling the story!

So, coincedently, he got to the pet shop at exactly the same time as the breeder who was dropping off the bubbies, also known as kittens, which are baby rats. He fell in love with the little Downunder Berkshire who jumped straight out of the box, as soon as the breeder had put it down on the counter, and ran to see Seth. As rats are social animals, they're most always sold in pairs and there were 3 girls. Seth...

Nat: I got stuck.
Seth: Let's swap.
Nat: Yeah.

So, as I chatted with the breeder the little Berkshire, who we called Penny, crawled all over me desperately trying to get attention. Her two sisters were both hooded rats one of them was almost as adventurous as Penny and the other was very shy. The Breeder said that if I took only two would I please take the shy girl, so that she could be with her sister. She seemed really sweet (the rat, not the breeder - though she was a lovely lady too @_@) so, of course, I agreed and reserved them there and then, to be picked up in a week. I couldn't wait!

They've been home for a while now, so here's introducing Florin and Penny:

This is Florin, the fat rat. Despite only being 9.5 weeks old, she's almost full size! We can't quite decide if she likes her food or if she's just big boned but I guess we'll see as she gets older. When we got her home, she didn't exactly turn out to be as shy as she was in the shop, in fact she was a little monster. Her favourite game is biting Seth's arse and then running away, bouncing as she goes. She also likes to climb into people's sleeves and tug on their arm pit hair. She's a monster! While we love her for all her madness, poor Penny got really annoyed with her which is one of the reasons we decided to expand our rat family but that's a story for later.

This is the lovely Penny,  or miss Inquisitive. She barely stands still long enough to take a picture but we feel this one gives some scope of her personality (she's about to jump on the camera). She's like the complete opposite of her sister, kind, gently, a little OCD about cleanliness and she loves to start play fighting. Unlike Florin, who's taken to winding Seth up, Penny bestowed love upon him from the very moment their eyes met. She fiercly guards him from all other attention and will happily bat anyone off if they try too close to him. It's kinda sweet really. And despite all this possessiveness, as soon as she has him all to herself, she likes to ignore him, just so he knows who's boss.

So now you've met our 2 original girls, next time on Rat Patooty, find out how our family grew and meet our 2 new girls. Pippin and Bella.