trained pet rat found…

I was at Greenlake last Sunday, June 21, as I often go there to jog and see people and pets. Northeast of the lake there is a park and a community center, then outside the park there is this hang-out neighborhood with coffeeshops, restaurants, fitness stores, and other social places. I was leaving the park in that area and building speed on my bike when I saw a black and white rodent on the road hugging the curb!

I stopped and went back to look at him and could tell that he was a confused and scared rat. He did not like being on the road at all. I was with a friend and we decided to block traffic while we shooed the rat across the street and toward Greenlake park. I ran toward the rat and he was not very afraid of me, but when I jumped toward him he ran a little bit, still against the curb, then stopped. I walked toward him and although he was trembling, I could tell that he was not afraid of me. That was when I knew that he was someone’s pet and that he was lost!

I did not know if he was friendly but I could tell that he was curious about us. My friend took off his bike helmet and lowered it to him, and with only a moment of hesitation he stepped inside. He was still shaking but we saw that he was calming down inside the helmet so we petted him, and that relaxed him a lot. He was dirty with car grease and had a scratch on his back that was not serious, so he had recently had some trouble but seemed well enough. He was entirely tame and had no interest in leaving the helmet, although he did want to stand on his haunches and look around.

With the rat in the hat, we could not bike, so I pushed both bicycles toward home while my friend carried the rat. It was about a mile walk, and the rat was very well-behaved as a human companion near busy roads. We had the idea that he was accustomed to sitting on someone’s shoulder as they walked around the park at Greenlake, because so many people bring their pets there.

When we got home I gave him a bath in the sink and he seemed to like it. I suspect he has gotten baths before, because rodents usually are anxious the first time they have one. We happened to have an extra rodent pen formerly used for hampsters, so we put him in that one. I took pictures of him and put his story on Craigslist, and then made flyers and posted twenty of them around the area where we found him.

I have gotten about five emails of support only, about seven more of people wanting to adopt him, about five phone calls of support only, and about five more from people who wanted to adopt him. Almost all of these people are responding to the Craigslist ad and not the flyer, despite both having an email and phone number displayed. I really do not think we will find the former owner, so in a few days we will have to give him to someone who can care for him because we cannot keep him. He is very friendly, but I worry about having him in the same room as hampsters, and also I do not think I could spend enough time carrying him around like he likes.