Einstein

Einstein was another Craigslist ad I answered:  Rat, free to good home.  I met with the owners and they handed him over a little reluctantly, explaining how sad they were to need to get rid of him but how happy to have found a rescuer to take him so they'd know he'd be safe.  They were foster parents for a number of dogs through a local rescue agency so they knew all about it. 

They were a young military couple who were heading to Germany for some reason or another, and couldn't get all the animals through customs.  The young black berkshire had been bought as a companion to their older rat, Darwin, after Darwin's cage-mate had died.  Now little Einstein was all alone and they hoped he'd make friends. 

This didn't seem like it would be much concern at the time, as Einstein was terribly sweet.  He climbed up in the sleeves or pockets of anything I wore and snuggled, and liked to groom me and carefully clean and trim my nails.  No worries, right?

Well.  As it turns out, Einstein is super sweet...but he's also a huge handful. 

First, he arrived as a hormonal "teenager," and he's been insecure and full of bravado ever since.  He's tiny for a boy, and terrible at throwing his weight around, but he always tries it anyway.  He picks fights he can't win.  He tries to dominate the bigger rats, but screams like he's being murdered whenever anyone comes close to him.  When he gets bored, he barbers himself by pulling out his hair, so he has big ugly bald patches.  When he gets bored of that, he barbers his cage-mates.

Oh, and he's an escape artist.  He likes to worm his way out of the cage, climb into the food bag, pig out, and then climb back into the cage when he gets bored.  I've woken up with him in my bed several times.  Once, he even figured out how to pop the screen on the window and made his way onto the outside window ledge before we caught him. 

It's hard to believe that he's two years old now.  In my head, he's always going to be a whiny teenager.  Luckily, he's aging very gracefully so hopefully he'll live to be ancient....the running joke in the house is that if anything kills him, it'll probably be getting run over by a car...or while sky-diving...