Rats sharing

 Arriving in his native provincial town on business, he traditionally looked into a pet store. There were about a dozen black, curly-haired babies, looking with sad eyes at the people passing by. Since, once looking at the little sleepy muzzle, you can’t leave without taking it with you. And now I’m already standing and choosing one small but pretty girl from a bunch of rats.  

We have a flock of girls living at home, and we only accommodate girls with them, otherwise the next settlement threatens with unplanned offspring! Boys live with boys, and girls live with girls, and this rule can be broken only when the animals are castrated / sterilized and offspring cannot appear in any way.

 They put the crumb in the only thing that was in the store – a small cardboard box. And in half an hour we were driving home together. At home, the baby was immediately examined to rule out any diseases. But, alas, she had skin parasites that are transmitted only from animal to animal. Therefore, our little traveler was treated with a special agent and placed in a quarantine cage, and with this cage she moved to live in another room from the main flock for 10 days.

A new rat in the house must be quarantined in a well-equipped cage for 10 days. During this time, you can see all the diseases, after which treatment should begin immediately. Move on to acquaintance with other rats only after recovery.

 During the entire stay of the micro-propeller at home, we became very close friends through fun games and watching movies, during which the baby sat under a warm fleece bike and sometimes stuck out his curious pink nose. After each contact during quarantine, you had to go to the sink and wash your hands thoroughly so as not to injure the sensitive psyche of the other rats with new smells. After 10 days, we re-processed Shusha, so we called our brand new, always rustling. That’s it, now you can proceed to the acquaintance of the curls with the main flock. First of all, with a rumble and a knock on the door jambs, a table was dragged from the kitchen, which traditionally serves as a territory for acquaintances in our apartment. It is perfect for this, as it is wide and not high. Why a table? For rats, this is an uncharted territory that is not under their control, with its own smells and, most importantly, without their marks. chose the most tender and affectionate girl from the whole flock. She approached the stranger, sniffed the residence permit and went on about her business, not paying attention to the clot of pure energy rushing around. Phew! The first member of the family did not show aggression, it’s time to take her back home and drag the next one.  

Registration is a code word in the vocabulary of an experienced rat breeder. This is the name of the causal place under the tail of rats, which they sniff to understand what kind of citizen is in front of them and what is his status in society.

 To our surprise, the second and following “old-timers”, up to the code number “eight”, behaved appropriately, like true ladies. There was only one scenario: she approached – sniffed – was surprised – sniffed again – turned away and went about her business. Knowing the characters of the rats in the pack, we approached the acquaintance with the “eighth” more seriously, bent over the table and prepared to break up the fight between Shusha and the daughter of our main rat, red-haired Yesenia, who occupied an honorable place in the hierarchy. Drumroll – and both rats on the table. Quickly realizing that the rat in front of her was not at all from her pack, the redhead immediately took an attacking pose, standing up on her hind legs and narrowing her eyes. So, on one side of the open palm of Yesenia, on the other, a new girl. You can sniff through the spread fingers, and the most important alpha in the house, that is, the owner, serves as a shield for the little one so that the eldest does not offend her. Number “eight” reception finished, next!

Hierarchy in a pack is a key system of relations in a rat society. The appearance of a new family member is fraught with the reorganization of the entire system, which cannot proceed without a showdown.

 The ninth girl is a contender for the championship in the pack. Young, playful, curious and very active. For such rats, the emergence of new contenders for the throne is not the best scenario. Therefore, we approach the acquaintance with even greater caution. Rats on the table, a second pause, and now the applicant has become sideways to Shusha and with a heavy formidable step is approaching closer and closer. In a second, a jump and attack should have followed, but the owner’s hand prevented a fight, covering the defenseless baby. The eldest wanted to sniff out so actively that she managed to push her fingers apart with her nose. We repeat the same trick as we did with the “eighth”. Next! The most crucial moment of acquaintance has come – the introduction of a new family member to the head of the rat pack – “alpha” Alice. Our alpha is formidable, strict and very wayward. Only when she smelled the smell of another rat, she fluffed up and began to snort. It looked like a furry balloon that bleeds air. She looked menacing and was determined to find a “foreign” rat and drive it out of her house. The trick with the palm will not help in this case; dances with a tambourine around the fire are needed here. And this means for several weeks, day after day, to carry out the dating procedure, until she realizes that the owner persistently decided to leave someone else’s rat at home. And now, after some time, our main rat stopped aggressive actions towards the baby being moved. Also these days we did not forget to repeat the acquaintance with the rest of the rat family. Once the matter has moved, then you can move on to the next stage of sharing – a common paddock on the territory of the pack. You need to make a bed, remove all the closed houses and boxes so that they can’t corner the new one in them, and start letting the rats in. On their territory, a trio of respected rats began to show Shusha who is in charge here: turn her over on her back, drive her around the paddock and in every possible way show her place in the hierarchy. The baby could only squeak and run away from the annoying old-timers. All this took place under our control, at such moments it is better not to lose sight of the place of walking, as a fight may begin with bad consequences. At the same time, they changed between the cage of the baby and the cage of the main pack rags, filler, hammocks and houses, so that during the time that they are not together, the smell always reminds of each other. So they walked and changed smells for about a week, until Alice began to calmly relate to the presence of Shusha. The baby managed to make friends with some of the flock, they played, looked after each other’s fur. You can move on to the next stage of accommodation. The main cage is washed to a shine, all ladders, houses, hammocks and beds also sparkled with cleanliness. Shusha was the first to enter the mansion, looked around and ran to a bowl of vegetables. Her girlfriends were seated behind her so that the atmosphere was as friendly as possible. Then they launched the girls into the cage in descending order of relation to the newcomer. Alpha entered the house last. Snorting a little at the curly Shusha, she displeasedly went to the opposite end of the cage: away from the new one. 

Do not be afraid to repeat any of the stages again, this happens often due to complex relationships in the pack and due to the nature of some of the participants in the settlement.

 A week later, the relationship became stronger. After the next walk, the whole flock ate, dispersed into hammocks, and Shusha fit on the couch next to Alice. What can I say – rats.