Another five minutes of my fifteen

[womzilla]

nellorat and supergee have both already linked to this, but:

Critter comforts

[nellorat], who keeps 14 pet rats--in cages--in her Yonkers home, fell into the rodent world by accident. About five years ago she was looking for a new pet hamster when the shopkeeper asked if she'd ever tried a rat. She agreed to take one home, named him Bilbo Baggins and "just totally fell in love.''

The dead-tree version had a very good photo of nellorat and three of the kids, in which I also appeared as a dark lump with a very high forehead.

Comments

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's a sign that I've been hanging around y'all too long because I don't consider rats to be an exotic pet. Ditto for hamsters and turtles -- when I was growing up, those were standard "first" pets for kids who maybe weren't mature enough to handle a puppy.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

Well, rats as pets aren't as common as hamsters and gerbils, partly because of the prejudice against the species. However, "exotic" is mainly a vet term of art, meaning anything besides dogs and cats. You'd be amazed how many vets do not treat "exotics," in this sense, of any kind.