Mummy Rat's vacancy

After the loss of my lovely boy Taylor on Saturday, I decided that Sunday would be best spent auditioning for the position of "Mummy Rat's Favourite", enabling an appointment to the job to be made as quickly as possible. It isn't that you have a Favourite Rat per se; you love them all (except LB, who has teeth and isn't afraid to use them) but I need to have one particular one to whom I pledge my allegiance. The essential characteristics on the job specification includes "lazy, loves being cuddled, is potty-trained and likes Mummy". Desirable characteristic include "having fur (the Great Mite Outbreak of 2008), not having a bad attitude to being cuddled and a lack of shyness".

Initially I had two applicants - little Simon (our one and only dumbo rat, and about 4 months old) and Big Colin. Big Colin is as laid back as they come - the only time he wakes up is to eat, drink and poo. Simon is extremely friendly - loves the entire human race, whereas Colin will be cuddled as long as it doesn't involve any exercise on his part. He sat on my knee for 45 minutes being generally cuddled and made much of, chumbling away to himself and retaining control of his bladder. Simon on the other hand is a rodent dynamo and was a blur while he was being cuddled - when I say cuddled I mean being stroked in passing when I managed to coordinate hand and rodent to be in a similar vicinity. He'll make a good Favourite Rat, but not yet...

So eventually Colin was offered the job of Favourite Rat - I had to offer it several times before he woke up sufficiently to accept the role. I don't think he's fully embraced his new duties, however, since when I returned home from work this evening Colin was asleep in a hammock. He deigned to accept a rat treat from me and allowed me to stroke him, but that was it. I see that I shall have to offer training....