Ought we to love, cherish and respect rats?

The goldfish was called Charlie and the canary called Dickie.  My first two cats which were twins were called Patch and Whiner (later changed to Fannie-Anne) .  My next cat was called Tiddler not Tinker . And my last cat was called Lardy La aka Lala.

The authors rats were called Molly, Ermintrude, Reyta & Agatha.  

What were the names  you gave to the goldfish and the canary?

Finished reading the book and it was an enlightenment to know they are not the vermin that they are portrayed but highly intelligent creatures given the chance to be so. At times it was an hard read probably cos I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve.

Jim asked if I would be popping down to the pet shop for one, most likely tongue in cheek and I said no chance. As I would never dream of owning a dog. My first pet was a goldfish the reason being I didn't have to handle it, next was a canary and I didn't handle that and lastly assorted cats and it took me a long time to be comfortable handling them.

Regards 

John

Reading about them and their conquests is one thing, buying one is without doubt a no brainer. I now have respect for those rats who perform feats that are far better than any human. What I have also read about is that I could never own one let alone touch one!! 

There is an interesting piece about Robert Fuller and his dislike of rats and his enjoyment of all wildlife ( bar rats), telling about his life from boy to present day. 

Will you be buying one from the pet shop?

Well have reached halfway reading the book and am amazed about the things am reading about Ratty, in parts of the World it is trained to be a mine detector and is far superior to the human form.
In Africa a Giant-pouched Rat called Magawa was awarded the equivalent medal to the Victoria Cross, the PDSA Dickin Medal gold medal in 2020 for the location and clearance of land mines Cambodia, it had sniffed out 39 landmines and 28 pieces of unexploded ordnance and it personally cleared 141,000 square metres, in 2022 it died aged eight. It was so well known it had 60,000 followers on Instagram account of the people who train the rats. There are quite a few of these Giant-pouched rats at the Apopo HQ where they are trained and they live a life of luxury while being trained.  They are trained to sniff out TB, Covid,  Cancer and Alzheimer's. One rat can check 100 samples in twenty minutes and they have a detection rate of 40% far higher than humans.

Will report back when have finished the book.