Rats and toads

We have Rats! Yes we have two rats in our house, they live in the bathroom. Their names are Harriette and Rita and they are our new pets (because we needed more animals!). Lily picked out a special breed of rat called a hairless rat and just like the name implies, she has no hair. She kind of so ugly she's cute! She's the one sticking her nose up in the picture above. Rich and Lily wanted to name her Hairy to be funny, but I talked them into Harriette since she's a girl. Here's a photo of her:
Rosie picked out Rita, the gray one on the left in the first photo. She is a sweet little thing who loves attention. She often hangs out on Rich's shoulder or in his pocket!

They are very friendly and the kids love them, they are actually good pets for little kids. Daisy spends alot of time watching them during the day and the girls look forward to holding them in the evening before we go to bed.


We did have to displace the toads in order to make room for the rats. We had long talks about toad hibernation. It took a while for Lily to come to terms with it, but when she was ready we made two toad houses in the garden complete with swimming pools! We just buried a clay pot and lined the bottom with dirt and leaves. We made one big house for the two big toads:

They seem to like it and hopefully they stick around.

and one little house for the two little toads.
Look closely and you'll see one of the little toads: