Introducing Sven

A blue rat by the name of Sven came come with me from Peoria yesterday. He and I have a lot in common. For starters, we're both nocturnal. We both have allergies and we both like to be scratched behind the ears. Sven seems pretty chill, albeit a bit freaked by his sudden change in surroundings. I've set him up with a rat pad in the corner of my room and he seems to be taking to it fairly well (especially since I removed the platforms and ramps, which were a bit daunting to him). The folks are accepting of him - Mama talks to Sven when she goes into my room and checked on him last night while I was at work. Sven seems to like me well enough, with his natural tendency right now being to hide under my foot or try to crawl into my hoodie. From day one (well, yesterday), he'd let me just reach in and give him a soft pet. We tried out a ball yesterday, but he didn't really seem that into it. He just kind of looked at me like, "what the hell am i doing in a big, yellow ball? seriously." We'll give it another whirl in a few more days. In the meantime, I'm pretty excited about getting to know the little guy a bit better and look forward to working with him. I've read that rats are especially responsive to positive operant conditioning and in addition to being toilet trained, can also be trained to walk with leash and perform tricks. I've already introduced a litter pan to his cage and have began establishing the importance of a positive reinforcement device (dehydrated berries). Of course, I'm going to have to take some pictures and maybe even get him his own petbook page on facebook. So, in short, look forwad to hearing all about my precious little Sven. He's even getting a shout out in the '08 Christmas card.

In other news...it's snowing. A lot. I think we're in the 5-8 inch band. In my future I see...reloading Canyonero 2.0 with sand weights, leaving for work early and driving the whole way in low-4.