Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / December 2004

I brought our little buddy Chip up to the living room for some exercise
today.  (Actually, he's not so little - he's a big black rat who's a good
nine inches from nose to base of his tail).  And, as usual, I let him run
around the couch as I watched the news.  He snoops around the cushions, but
mostly runs back and forth across the back of the couch and down the arms.
I tossed a couple of throw pillows up there to add some interest.

My wife, Mary, entered the room and asked where Chip was.  I absentmindedly
pointed behind me and said, "Up there".  "No," she says, "I don't think so."
I turn to see her point to our Christmas trees.  We have three fake trees;
small, medium, and large.  They are skinny and clustered together in a
little decorated forest just at the end of our couch.  The middle size one
is swaying.  On further inspection, we found Chip.  One of the limbs makes a
bridge from the couch, and he had followed it.  He was in the middle of the
tree pushing limbs around to make a bed.  After a while, he settled in and
looked perfectly comfortable watching us from inside the tree.

After about half an hour, I checked in on him again.  By now he had made a
nice little house and was curled up.  I fed him some holiday Chex Mix, which
he enjoyed.  A hour or so later, my daughter Shay entered the room and we
asked if she could find the new ornament.  I took her a moment, but she was
delighted to see Chip resting peacefully in the middle of the tree.  Later,
my son Rob came in and we asked the same thing.  By now Chip had moved to
one of the "rooms" he had made in the back of the tree, so it took a while
before Rob spotted Chip's tail.

Chip spent the better part of the afternoon in the tree, eating Chex Mix and
sleeping.  Occasionally he would explore a little more, but never left the
tree.  I actually had to fight with him when it was time to go back home.  I
knocked an ornament off, something Chip hadn't done.  I swear if I had put a
water bottle and food dish in the tree, he could have lived there.