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| Name: |
Basil
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Age: |
Eight months old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Rat
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| Home: |
Dublin, Ireland
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Basil
is a husky roan standard rat. I'm eighteen years old and have Aspergers,
which means that I often get social anxiety or am extremely nervous around
large groups of people. Since having rats, I've found this problem has improved.
I got Basil as a rescue rat when he was around five months old. He was
living a really small tank on his own, and was really sad and depressed
looking just sitting in the corner watching the world go by. I took him home
with me and had him for a month before introducing him to my other boys, and
now three months on he's just my favourite little guy. We have a totally
special bond, he tells me what he wants through his movements and squeaks,
and if I tell him it's time for lunch he'll run down my leg or my arm and
scurry over to stand by the fridge and wait!
Basil and his brothers will come with me all the time, riding along on my
shoulder, in my hood or in my pocket. He walks the dog with me, cooks with
me, we watch TV together and he's even known in the local shop from coming
in with me (I buy the newspaper for myself and a granola bar for him!) He'll
do tricks for this treats, such as spin, kiss and stand, and even though his
brothers bully him sometimes so that he has to come out and sit with me, he
never acts aggressive towards anybody.
I have a few pictures I took of Basil today when he was sitting on my
shoulder eating breakfast with me (yoghurt for him, because it was
Valentines day and he's a true romancer!) He lives in a large cage with two
other males called Toby and Scrabble, and Basil is really special. I tend to
keep Basil with me a lot, to help me not to get too nervous when I'm out in
busy places. He knows tricks and he's really sweet. He likes to give kisses,
and he'll squeak really loudly if you try to put him back into his cage
before he's ready!
Basil also absolutely hates his baths. Just recently he had a little
accident and injured his foot. We brought him to the vet and he was
perfectly behaved for every single examination and prod, he let himself be
held upside down and have antiseptics dabbed on the wound, but when the vet
told us to give him a bath with salt water every day for the next week, his
ears perked up straight away and he let out this really loud squeak at the
word "bath"! I swear he understands every word we're saying sometimes!
Generally I'd only give him a bath if he's gotten himself dirty or every
couple of months just to make his coat nice and smooth. I think Basil is an
incredibly special rat.
View more images of Basil!
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