They are amazing beings. We currently have 6 still with us. Though will take on more in the near future once’s out newest are integrated.
I have a respect for rats, despite an inbuilt revulsion. They've been found to be way more intelligent than given credit for- though I think that's probably the case for every animal, we just assume they're dumb because they're different.
I've had friends who had them as pets and could see their reasoning for why they made great pets.
If it wasn't for my kneejerk reaction to them, I still wouldn't personally have them, it wouldn't be fair with these guys around:
I mainly came in to post this pic, based on previous experience I never expected them to be so chill this close, he and Maxwell wouldn't even chill in the same room if they could help it.
When I lived in the inner city the grey and white guy would catch at least one rat a day. I've met people who randomly mix predators and their prey as pets and don't understand how you can like animals enough to want to care for them but not enough to let prey animals live in constant fear.
The kittens are settling in great and the fat man is doing so good with them, even playing with them a bit. He gave us a huge scare a few weeks back, was off his food (you don't become a 6 kg cat if you don't eat well), didn't move. Was very good at the vets even when they put a thermometer up his bum, he had a fever. I was so worried he'd have infected the babies and we could lose all 3 so soon after losing Maxwell.
Thankfully the babies were fine, and he recovered quickly. They've finished their immunisations and its starting to get harder to keep them out of the kitchen (where the catflap is, yanks please don't judge its literally a requirement for adoption from many places here to have outside access) and keep them in the spare room overnight. I don't want to leave them with our other cat while we're asleep, or lock him in the kitchen overnight when he's used to sleeping on our bed. That wouldn't be fair. He isn't aggressive with them but I can tell he gets a bit stressed when they're going mad and could really hurt them if he wanted to.
So its several months of keeping them entertained with DIY catification and interactive play until they're spayed and big enough to go out. It really weird because I don't remember it being like this when the bigger boy was a kitten despite the exact same situation- older cat needing outside access and them not to be left unattended together. These kittens seem much more confident and curious than him, I think maybe because they're littermates rather than a single kitten.. Also I'm in a different house now with a different layout that limits options significantly.
