THE FIRST ONE- Grendel of Unity College (1988-1990)

 Grendel was our first baby rat.  The lab at college had an ad for free baby rats!  So I called and a few days later I picked up my tiny bundle of joy!  We started in a 10 gallon aquarium, a water bottle, a food dish, some wood chips and some dog food.

 It was against the rules to have pets in the dorms, but our RA hat a huge hooded rat for a pet in her room. And so it was, Grendel's cage was set up in my wardrobe closet.  He posed with my boyfriend.

 He helped us with homework... well, kind of

And the following school year, my boyfriend (then fiancee) and I moved off campus taking Grendel with us.  He got to shower and dry off by the wood stove.  He would climb the stone walls, and he would follow us across the field, swimming through oceans of cold puddles and patches of snow just to keep up with my shoes!

My husband graduated that summer.  I was able to keep Grendel with me throughout the summer while I worked and lived at the college.  In the fall, we moved into the dorm again.  Grendel died that October.  The morning he died, he had pulled some of my clothes through his cage and chewed them to shreds.  I got angry at him, but had to rush to classes.  When I returned later, he was dead in his cage.  Why would it be that the last time I saw him I was angry at him?

My roommate said her goodbyes as did I, and I put him in a box and brought him out to the trail I used to walk with him on my shoulder.  I buried him at a turn in the trail and marked it with a rock.

My next rat was Grendel's daughter, Cricket.  My ex-roommate still had her and was willing to let me have her.  You know why she was so willing?  Cricket came to me with a horribly prolapsed uterus.  Like $150 later, I told that rat she'd better live long for costing me that much.  And she did!  She lived to be 3 years old!

Over the years, I have loved and lost a lot of beloved pet rats.  I have bred litters, dealt with ill rats, sick babies, crazy homeless rats... and loved them all.

If I can find any of Grendel's other photos I will scan and post them.  We used to have many of them.