Thank you all for your warm welcomes! And greetings to all fellow rat enthusiasts
About the wild rat - here's the story: we got him, of all places, from an animal shelter. We wanted company for our then two females and were looking for a castrated male. Our females were both rather big, weighing three quarters of a pound, and one of them was very domineering. So we were looking for a tough guy to stand up to her. This big brown rat looked the strongest and healthiest, and he was more than 20 cm long, without tail. Nobody wanted him, the staff said he was mean, and we thought he looked cute with his scar under one eye and his slightly kinky ear. My husband called him 'Wilbur' after 'Wilbur Whateley' - he is a big fan of Lovecraft.
On our way out, the staff at the animal shelter told us Wilbur had been found "under a bush" at such and such a street. When I looked the street up in a map later, I found that there were two streets with a similar name, and both run through non-residential areas, either a large (and dirty) industrial area or unused land, and both are very close to local waste dumps. At home, what had been a perfectly tame rat I had stroked and petted - while the staff silently doubted my sanity - suddenly gave us the "horror rat from hell" show through the cage bars. He hid from us, hissed at us, arched his back like an angry cat and spiked up his fur. Really impressive. He looked almost the size of a small Yorkshire terrier crossed with a porcupine. He has beautiful teeth, too. What had happened was, that his stress induced catatonia had worn off and he was demonstrating just how determined he was to defend his new home - one hairy pound of pure Attitude. It didn't make sense to us, just as it didn't make sense that he would leave his food untouched for hours and then gulp down as much as possible in one sitting. He didn't want fresh vegetables, either. (But he loves tuna.)
Then our vet told us, that pet rats usually do not survive in the wild, and that Wilbur was showing typical wild rat behaviour. Wilbur also has lots of small scars along his rump, which indicate he had to fight a lot. The vet's theory was that he was probably sick or injured when someone found him and took him to the shelter. My brother in law, who is a biologist, confirmed the vet's suspicion and reassured us that a rat could be tamed. They almost share houses with humans anyway. So we thought we'd try ... with lots of patience, liver paté, yoghurt und more useful information from the net, our wild rat came to trust us enough to be picked up and petted, and he happily shares a cage with three young and doting females, the first two now having both passed away. Wilbur is almost two years now and less aggressive towards strangers than he used to be. We cannot let him near other males, though, so our males live separate.
I was only bitten twice, and the first bite was much worse. Stupid me poked her fingers into his nest - bad idea. Very bad idea. Going to the hospital in the middle of the night dressed all in black leather and telling them you've been bitten by a wild rat however provides an entertaining break from routine for all the emergency staff.
I think rats are amazing creatures - I read somewhere that in the Middle Ages they were considered harbingers of death, probably because of their connection to the plague. If any of you consider rats as pets, be sure to get at least two of the same sex - a single rat will pine, and if you get a mixed pair, you will have literally dozens of unwanted offspring unless one rat is castrated. Rats also need the biggest cage you can afford, a lot of attention, and they will at some point damage your furniture, your clothes, shoes and anything else they can get their teeth into. We learned the hard way. They are excellent climbers - they have little suction pads on their paws and are natural tight rope walkers. And I know why our cage is padlocked. If they had opposable thumbs, they'd probably be headed for world domination
Blushing Heliophobe - Rats can indeed be gross, depending on your level of sensitivity. They eat their own faeces, the males are "very well equipped" as the saying goes, and when the females are ready for mating (every four days) they will demonstrate this fact proudly to the whole world in a way that is impossible to ignore. In comparison, dogs are the epitome of modesty and decorum.
Roserougesang - what did you think of the 'Goth Bible'? I was very interested to hear about goths in other countries, but I found the part on Germany a bit short - that might be because things have changed since the book first appeared. I wonder wether the book is representative of the other countries? All in all I liked the book a great deal, though - lots of interesting information!