Surprising Truths Behind Pocket Puppies (Rats) - Charlotte Lin


    Soft, friendly, pocket-sized little critters that love human companionship. Seems that we would love them back, right? They make great pets that are stupidly easy to care for and can be found all over the world. Yet, we use their name as an insult to call people liars and snitches. We’ve named them pests and compared them to trash. We set death traps in our own homes in attempts to murder them as quickly and efficiently as possible. This blog will look into how our society portrays rats, and uncover some facts about them that you might not have known. 

I understand that some people genuinely feel uncomfortable with these animals (so read at your own risk), but hopefully, you will learn some surprising facts and gain a more positive mindset about rats! It could seem so, but I wasn’t trying to mislead you just now. Everything I said is true, and there’s much more you likely didn’t know about rats. For example, did you know that although we can’t hear it, rats raise their pitch and giggle when happy or excited, just like us? They also enjoy being tickled and often use body language to ask for more pets. Rats are incredibly emotional and social creatures that form strong bonds with other rats and animals (including their owners). One of the biggest rules to keeping them in captivity is to house multiple together. Without companionship, rats become depressed, and their poor mental health will affect their fragile physical health as well.

My past few blogs have all been on animals, specifically, somewhat uncommon creatures that in my opinion don’t get enough recognition. I find it interesting how people can have extremely contrasting views on the same species. When looking at rats, some people see them as family and love them dearly, while others want nothing to do with them or could kill them off without a second thought. I believe such different perspectives all come down to the source of education and what each person knows about these animals. Some may just genuinely fear rats for reasons like the way they look, and that’s okay. But I don’t believe that every single person who dislikes rats was born with that feeling, and society definitely has an influence on the public image of rats. I used to feel uncomfortable around these rodents because all I’d known about them was from seeing them as vermin in movies or hearing negative stereotypes about them. When I saw almost a hundred of rat pups (babies) available for adoption at the humane society a while ago, I was surprised. I hadn’t realized that people actually kept these animals as pets. Intrigued, I went to visit some of them and had the most delightful experience. They were incredibly friendly and sweet, nothing like the hissy, hostile, skittish pests I’d seen in media. Since then, I’ve been interested and wanted to know more about them. Once again, this blog was not structured around a singular book or piece of literature, but rather me sharing my insights and what I’ve learned from my online reading and research. Articles and websites will be linked at the bottom (plus a cool video). 

Besides their emotional intelligence, rats are also very smart and can learn their names as well as various tricks. They can be compared to dogs (hence the nickname Pocket Puppies) due to their trainability and eagerness to please. Another animal these rodents are often compared to are cats, but for a different reason - cleanliness. Did you know rats groom themselves more often in a day than cats? They have been stereotyped to be dirty animals but in reality, they’re actually very clean. I could go on much longer about these rodents that have so much more to them than I originally thought, but hopefully with what I’ve shared so far you have learned something new about rats.



Comments

  1. Lucas T.March 8, 2024 at 1:25 PM

    This is super interesting! I love the detail you put into describing these pocket puppies. Understanding the difference that people make between inhumane vs humane is very differentiated in rats.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AsmaraMarch 9, 2024 at 5:58 PM

    This was a very interesting read! I never knew how rats got the name of "Pocket Puppies". I also didn't know they could do tricks, that's really cool! Nice blog!

    ReplyDelete

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