I needed a quick line drawing for my sketchbook page one morning when I was dashing all over the place. My kids and I happen to have been having a discussion about bubonic plague – as one does over breakfast – so I decided to draw a rat. It’s a bit scrappy and the rush shows but I think at least this rat doesn’t look too cutesy. I don’t think he would be anyone’s pet.
A Pict in PA 
I laughed out loud when I saw the title of this post – so very you, Laura. And the idea that you would be discussing bubonic plague at breakfast just seems to be normal…. ( : Great rat drawing, certainly no one’s pet.
Ha ha! I see you already know me well through following this blog. My husband often remarks that we are surely the only family sitting around the dinner table discussing epidemics, autopsies and cannibalism. We do discuss happy, sunshiney positive stuff too but somehow we do frequently find ourselves on more macabre topics.
My first thought was, “Do rats really have belly buttons?” Then I learned rats don’t have gallbladders or tonsils, but they do have belly buttons. So there you go. BTW, I did own two rats in my teen goth phase of the 80s, named Felix and Valentino. At night, they rolled about in pine shavings and got me to wondering the nature of their relationship.
Ha ha! I love that you went off and did some research. Now I’m wondering why they don’t have tonsils or gallbladders and what other mammals might not. The story about Felix and Valentino made me smile. Rats make good pets because they are so smart I believe. I never actually had rats but I had a dozen mice at one point including a huge bald one (he had a skin condition) that made him look more like a petite rat.
A dozen mice? All in one cage? Why did you have them? I only had rats because a cute boy downtown at the clubs wearing a trenchcoat had a rat named Homeslice in his coat pocket, so naturally I had to follow suit. “I wish that I could be like the cool kids…” Now I think I would make dead any rats or mice in our home or attic. Aging makes you jaded. 🙂
I honestly can’t remember why we had them except that our house was often a refuge for feral cats and other abandoned animals so perhaps they were someone else’s unwanted pet. They started out as two mice, supposedly both male, but then babies happened. We had them in multiple cages. One cage – for the bald mouse – looked like a UFO.
I think pet rodents are different from wild ones. I wouldn’t have befriended any of the ones I used to encounter late at night on the London Underground.
Of course he could be someone’s pet, just remember all those creatures from your notebook! I bet many of them would like him for a pet 🙂
Ha! That’s true. Perfect pet for an Igor.
LOL! True!