Poor Rat.

Ho hum - a pet rat doesnt.....

A great comment got through -
Yes Shirley thank you for your pearl of wisdom, I'm sure it must come as a comfort to the bereaved's family.

- Horace Wrigglesworth, UK

in response to this one -
Anyone with any wound, whether made by animal or otherwise, should go for medical attention if any signs of infection appear without delay.

- Shirley, UK

I used to keep fancy rats, they are very friendly and quite intelligent.

In fact my daughter often used to go to bed with one asleep on her pillow. Next morning it would often be looking out the bedroom window from the sill.

Just occasionally you get a "bad" one that might claw or bite another, but never the hand that fed it.

I used to have a pet rat that would curl up in my hands and go to sleep while i watched TV

One of the two we had in the post used to curl up and sleep on my mums shoulders.

So did both of mine - on my shoulders, in my hands or practically anywhere they could get close.

Since I lived less than a hundred yards' walk from the local vet's surgery when I owned my rats, I tended not to bother distressing them by putting them in a box when I took them for check-ups - I'd just walk down the main road with at least one passenger riding on my shoulders.

It was quite amusing when I stopped at the cash machine en route, and said passengers would poke their heads out of the back of my hair to eyeball the rest of the queue and wonder why we'd stopped.

Once people'd stopped gawking and had the nerve to come close, they were generally quite surprised when I'd take a rat in my hands and invite them to introduce themselves - and they'd find the rats free of sewer odour and extremely friendly.

It's amazing how many people who're scared of or otherwise prejudiced against rats've never actually met a fancy rat at close quarters.

When it comes to animals with a bad press, seeing people score cheap points by repeating old misconceptions annoys me. As has already been said: any animal bite can turn nasty - even from a pet - but death by a bite from a cute, fluffy cat doesn't tick as many boxes when it comes to phobias.

Meh, I had a hamster.

Hah yeah, my mum was really nervous about me getting a rat but before long she was more than happy to handle it.

I miss having rats. Gonna have to get more soon.

I dislike creatures of these kinds. At least up close. Mainly because my ex's hamster bit my hand, little bastard!

I know the feeling (on both counts).

It took six years for me to convince Mum to let me keep rats - but as soon as one of them fell asleep in my hands on the first night that we bought them home, she was hooked.

Hah, thats brilliant!

The Mirror printed this exact same story today, down to the word.

With the same rat picture, and a caption of "A Rat" (no way?!)

Talking of inane pictures, why do the Express and the Mail always print pictures of polar bears/penguins/other fluffy animals for no apparent reason other than for readers to go "Aaaah" at? Was reading the Mail the other day (no Guardians in the work canteen) and there was a two page spread on polar bears. No real reason, just lots of pictures of polar bears.

Amusingly, they said the bears were declining because of climate change. Come on Dacre, isn't climate change just a load of old Communist bollocks they made up to wring money out of you? You're getting soft.