Born May 2006

Harley came from the PAH adoption scheme. For various reasons, I do my best never to go into PAH unless I am desprate for something I can't get elsewhere, but one day in May 2007 I had to and I saw there was a rat up for adoption. The rat was described as male, being rehomed because he didn't get on with his cagemates and needing an experienced home only. I only saw a scared face poking out of a cardboard tube, and when the assistant opened the cage I got a nip that left me dripping blood. Even so, I didn't want to leave the scared little rat there and brought "him" home. Once in a spare cage, "he" ran into the igloo and, though "he" came out, "he" would run and hide when I walked into the room. It was a couple of days before I discovered that he was a she!

There followed several weeks of gradually getting her to let us touch her (always careful to keep fingers away from her mouth - she nipped and she sometimes still does). Then getting her out in her igloo, in the rat playpen. After a while she started to climb over me, and I discovered that she doesn't mind being stroked, she just hates fingers being poked at her. And she will not let herself be picked up, though she will happily run out of the cage onto my shoulder. Then came intros to the other girls and she really hit it off with Joy. She now lives with Joy and Patience and she is a happy, outgoing rat. She loves to be out and is always waiting by the cage door at playtime. She jumps obediently onto my shoulder to be put back in. Overall she is a good girl, so long as I respect her horror of hands and fingers. Heaven knows what happened to her in the past. Isn't she pretty, though?