Meet Zoe... Our New Pet

Here is the saga of how all of this got started. I am not shy about the fact that I have never wanted a pet. I grew up with many and so did Frank, but I still haven't wanted one at this phase in my life. However, after many discussions with the kids and Frank I decided it was selfish to deny the kids the opportunity to be responsible for a pet, have fun and play with a pet, and learn about life: growing, cleaning, their environment, nutrition, and yes eventually dying (this is the part I wanted to protect them from forever). So Frank went to many pet stores to find out about gerbils or hamsters. Every single one of the employees told him that with the ages of our kids we don't want either one of those little creatures. They are fairly dumb, meaning they don't learn their masters; this results in biting and not wanting to be held or played with easily. They get scared when you want to handle them and just aren't fun. The best pet for this age group is a RAT. Yep, a rat. When Frank told me all of this I didn't believe him. I took a day to go find out for myself from several other pet stores that he didn't go to. Well... it turns out it's all true. They are gentle, soft, trainable, obsessed with cleaning and grooming themselves, they don't like a messy home, and they can learn their name. This just pertains to domestic rats, not the yucky wild ones outside.

Here she is- red eyes and all.