I found this story online. Apparently it was included in the book (now copyright-free and in the Project Gutenberg database) "Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper and other Stories" and the author was given as anonymous. I would love to know more about the story and how it originated. Anyway, here it is:

A poor man saw, by the roadside, a large white rat. It seemed to be dead. Moving it gently he found it was alive, but had a broken leg. He took it up and carried it to his lonely home. He bound up the bruised leg, fed the poor creature, and soon it was quite well.

I am so happy and relieved. No fights last night and this morning Pickles had climbed in the hammock with Bailey and they were snuggled up together.

Verdict: Mean little friend better than no friend.

Parole denied.

We attempted to reunite the prisoner with Pickles, the only rat friend she has (make that had). She immediately attacked Pickles and went after her relentlessly and Pickles wasn't having it. Pickles had her mean face on and was seriously fighting back. We were planning on putting them in a separate cage together but that is not going to happen.

I guess we are going to put Bailey in her own cage and put her next to the other rats' cages so she can at least not be totally isolated from them. I am not looking forward to having to clean 3 cages but I don't know what else to do.

On the plus side, Bailey is bonding more with John and I. I guess she figures we're better than nothing.

I just don't get rats sometimes. It IS true that they are very fastidious groomers, much like cats and don't like to get gooey stuff on their paws or faces. HOWEVER...

and this is a big however...

they pee where they sleep. They're pretty good about using their litter tray for dookie, but they piss all over their nice clean hammocks and then they lay there and marinate in it.

AND...

and this is a big and...

if you give them a particularly delectable tidbit, they will race off with it to a safe place. What place do they pick? Right in the middle of their litter box. How pleasant can that be?

Explain this to me. What survival instinct is at work here? There's gotta be a reason but i sure don't know what it is. They always say that animals don't pee where they sleep, so why do rats?

They obviously like to be clean. They groom themselves and each other continuously. In fact, there is an unspoken rat rule that if two rats are in the middle of a fight or eating or whatever, and one starts grooming, the other one will stop and groom, too. Then they will pick up where they left off.

I just don't get it. Good thing they're so dang sweet and fun.

Bailey "i'll- huff- and- i'll- puff" Brown is in prison tonight.

Bailey is one of my rescue rats. I call her my little ship rat and Pickles my little sewer rat cuz they are a bit rough around the edges and are always getting in fights. Bailey has always been on the aggro-side with her cagemates, but lately she is just out of control. She has attacked Dinky and Luna repeatedly until they are screaming. If you have never heard a rat scream, believe me, you do not want to. I am worried that they are going to be permanently traumatized from being hunted down and attacked by her.

One odd side note is Pickles' role in all this. She and Bailey formed a really strong bond when they first arrived and she is like Bailey's sidekick. If Bailey attacks someone, she will come running to join her and will start attacking the other rat with her (even though she usually gets along peacefully with the others). I've never seen that happen with my other rats. Sometimes one will opportunistically power-groom a rat that another rat is already power-grooming, but never have any of them doubled-up on someone during a serious fight.

Poor Luna came from a home with one elderly cagemate who passed away. They never even fought. I think she is about to have a nervous breakdown from all the tension.

And all Dinky wants in life is a cozy hammock, a snuggle buddy, a bowl of good food and out time with mom and dad. Her scared little face as she tried to run away from Bailey (managing to waddle VERY FAST) and into my shirt brought out all my protective instincts. I told John she was Piggy from "Lord of the Flies".

I have been doing small time-outs with Bailey in the travel cage, which have helped, but not solved the problem. Tonight was a bad one. So tonight, the little ship rat is spending the night alone in the travel cage. I feel sorry for her, but I don't know what else to do. It is unbelievable quiet in the girls' cage right now.

I read somewhere that agouti-based rats are more aggressive (found it). John insists that this is racist and dubious. However, out of all the rats we've had, the two who were the cage terrorists were both agouti (Bon, cinnamon agouti and Bailey). Coincidence? Maybe.

In addition to that, all the good names have already been taken, so finding a unique name adds a whole nuther layer. Sometimes names that seem good on a cognitive level just don't fit on an emotional level. And sometimes after a week or so it just isn't right anymore.

Some rats resist telling you their names. Perhaps it is because of some superstition that if you know their name you will have power over them. Perhaps it is because their real true name is unpronouncable in human-speak. I don't know. Some rats tell you right off, others prefer to be mysterious.

Such was the case with Otis and Bunnyman. No names sounded right. For the longest time they were the blue boy and the scruffy boy.

So we finally ended up with the name Otis because he's a blue agouti and we decided to name him after a blue's singer. (actually his full name is Otis "Bobblehead" Brown, most of our animals have Brown as a last name. No, I have no idea why.)

I thought he should be Stevie because he does this odd Stevie Wonder move with his head, sort of swaying it back and forth. (I have heard of pink and red-eyed rats doing that to see better, but he has black eyes so I'm not sure why he does it). Otis seemed to be the first name of several well-known blue's singers and then I had a dream conversation where someone said the name should be Otis. Maybe my subconscious was sick of thinking up new names. Anyway, that clinched it.

Otis is an interesting little guy. He is very sweet and very playful. He is the one who loves to hand-wrestle the most. Sometimes he will do little, gentle play nips and then run away like crazy and then run back for more wrestling. He loves to be scritched and will scrunch up his eyes and hold very still.

Well, I got a little ahead of myself and already introduced you to Bunnyman, so i guess its time for you to meet the rest of the boys.

When my sweetheart Penelope died I was really depressed. She and I had a special connection that is hard to explain. While I love all of my girls, none of the ones who remain are especially people-oriented. Dinky is the sweetest and most affectionate of the lot, but she is still sort of shy and would rather hide out than hang out.

I decided to get another pair of rats. Boys this time so that we wouldn't have the tumor issues that have plagued the girls and because I wanted to experience a group of boys.

I contacted a couple of breeders to let them know I was interested, Linda B. of the Crafty Rat in San Jose and Connie Perez of Rat Genesis in San Francisco.

Linda had some adorable blue dumbo boys that would be ready soon and arranged a play date so that we could meet our prospective adoptees when they were 3 weeks old.

Right after I heard from Linda, I heard from Connie. She had pictures of some beautiful Burmese and black-eyed Siamese and Himalayan pups that would be available. I somehow convinced John that we should get one of these guys too, but then realized that one would be lonely during quarantine, so it should really be two. (hmmm.... you see the pattern here???)

I was so anxious for our first play date that I couldn't stand it. Every day I was counting down how many days were left before I could go. When I got there I met Linda in person and she invited me in. Rat heaven. Three cages of adorable baby rats. One was the blue litter, one was a down-under litter and another litter had just been born with more potential down-unders. I played with the boys and girls in the blue litter. It was hilarious the way they swam out of their cage. I really enjoyed talking to Linda, very knowledgable, funny and down-to-earth. She handed me a little agouti-hooded rex guy from the other litter. He curled up on me and started bruxing. I fell in love with him right then but I figured he must already be spoken for. On the next play date the same thing, came out, cuddled up and started bruxing as soon as I petted him. I tentatively asked if he was available. Linda said "Well, I hadn't told anyone about this litter, but yes, he's available." That was it. I knew Bunnyman was coming home with me. I still couldn't decide which of the blue boys was the one, though. They were all cute and sweet and playful. John came with me on the second playdate and fell in love with a little blue agouti hooded guy, Otis.

I told Connie the personality types I was most interested in and let her choose which boys to bring. We met midway at the San Mateo train station. It was also the first time I had met her in person. I have admired her knowledge and kindness on the list serves where she posts and it was nice to have the chance to meet her.

Oggie and Buster were so tiny. With their big eyes and ears, they almost looked like little mice. Initially they were shy, but soon warmed up to us.

We introduced the two pairs of boys after they had both had a chance to settle in and they bonded immediately. No huffing, puffing or posturing from anybody. In fact, the two bigger boys of Linda's seem to realize that they need to play a little bit more gently with the little guys and are very tolerant of Oggie's relentless Kamikaze attacks on them.