The other night I had a very sad, helpless dream about the house being robbed and the rats killed. Phil was out and I was alone in the house, which was broken into by a gang of kids; I was trying to fight them and make them stop breaking things up but there were too many of them. They killed Aja and Anansi. Phil returned home very late that night, and said that he had been trying to convince someone whom he thought he was in love with to run away with him, but she had refused. *sigh*
I woke at 1:30 and could hear the rats shaking their cage downstairs, so I went down to let them out for a bit. Anansi was very frisky and kept trying to mate with Aja, who seemed quite pissed off with him and definitely not in the mood. He followed her under the table and tried to trap her, and she totally kicked his ass. There was much screeching at each other, rolling over and over, and standing-on-hind-legs boxing. He finally broke and ran for the cage, where he sat on the highest shelf and sulked. All I could do was look at him and say “Well, dude, sorry…but no means NO.”
The pair had originally been brought from Germany as a breeding pair, but giant rats are notoriously difficult to breed. From what I’ve read online, it has something to do with dominance – the female is always dominant, and only the most dominant female of the group will breed. Even in single pairs, they seem to know if they’re a dominant female or not, and the matings will not result in pregnancies.
They’re hopping like giant kangaroo rats around the computer room right now, and Aja keeps trying to force her way into the now-blocked fireplace. One-track minds, they’re worse than ferrets, I swear. They sound like small, heavy children running up and down the stairs. They are just the coolest looking animals, with their long ears and donkey faces.