I wish I knew my account from way back when this tread started. I just signed back up when you came back.It is almost impossible to find information on an account once you change an email address Calla

Gosh everyone is shy around here - I want to hear your voice! I just noticed a post I made many years ago in this very tread. After having so many pets over so many years how hard it is to come up with orginal names. How do you name your pets?

Looking forward to hearing from you

I love your emails but I would sure like to see some introductions coming in. We would all love to meet each other. Kodos for those that get out of their shy attacks.

Well, I'm new to this board, and from Maine. This year marked the introduction of pet rats into our lives---possibly the best pets ever---I am happy to find that at my age I can still be changed! It was a long and deep snow winter. The business of being housebound so long may have played a part. But even more than that, it seems our hearts were open, too. Not really shy, but sometimes I have too much to tell, and don't know where to start. I'll begin with this for now. Rats have managed to steal my heart this year, but not quite enough to steal me away from our great dog, Pepper, who is getting up there.

Rat Dad,

Wonderful to hear from you welcome to the exotic pet forum! I feel very much the same about rats; they have a way to taking over your heart. They are sweet, loving, and intelligent. I would love to learn more about your kids including Pepper.

How did you get interested in rats at the beginning?

[quote=Diana-Exotic Pets Editor]Rat Dad, Wonderful to hear from you welcome to the exotic pet forum! I feel very much the same about rats; they have a way to taking over your heart. They are sweet, loving, and intelligent. I would love to learn more about your kids including Pepper. How did you get interested in rats at the beginning? [/quote] Definitely to do with the winter, and the fact we had our son's girlfriend staying with us ( she had no place to go all winter) and the two of them started with gerbils, then a hampster. We weren't sure we wanted rodents, as they have been nothing but trouble to our old farm house over the years. Still, they all had their appeal. Then, one day when I got in from work, my son was holding up this bi-colored little beast with its arms and feet spread out in the way that I now know rats do when first picked up---he said it was a rat, being given away to a good home. It came from Petco, and a young woman there who, like us, hates seeing these creatures fed to snakes. So she was able to head Cassie, our first rat, our way. I fell for her at once. I'd never seen such an agreeable, easy to please, and eager to please animal in my life, excepting dogs, but Cassie acted this way from the first moment. I warned you this is a long story! So I may have to fill in the details later. So next came Rose, (butterscotch) Dusty (brown agouti who I think is a survivor of a snake encounter, which does terrible things to their psychology, but who we have helped.) Then we adopted old Rascal from a neighbor we never knew, who didn't want him any more. :( Big, squishy lap rat, much older than we thought, but we were blessed with 4 precious months with Rascal.) Then Mac, who we sadly just lost to an inner ear infection, a wonderful boy, and then the two Noisy Boys from Mainely Rat Rescue (we live in Maine,) Plink and Twang. Depending on how much anyone really wants to know, I can post links to Picasa albums I'm creating, and of course hammer away at the keyboard. I, and the rest of my family, are adicted to these little angels.

That is really special. I would love to see the Picasa albums. If you want to post your pet pictures email them to me with their names. I can post the for you if you don't have online storage. Then I will send you the page link so that you can use them.

Wow. With winter suddenly hitting Maine, and two snowstorms later, I realized it's been over a week. Sorry. Well, I'm just starting the Picasa albums, but with more time on my hands I'll put together more. What's there now is one album for Rascal and one for Mac. I just started one for our two Noisy Boys, our adoptees from Mainely Rat Rescue. But it will grow. They all have such personality.I have the pics ready and resized for the others, just a matter of putting them up. I'm not sure I did this right. I need to learn this new (to me) forum's ways! http://picasaweb.google.com/plantman42 [url=http://picasaweb.google.com/plantman42]Our Fast-Growing Rat Albums[/url]

Email me from my bio page, I will send you my personal email, then you can send me the pics and I will put them up for you. I think that is the only way it can be done. I will send the url where the pics are at so you can put them up else where as well.
Diana