First Meeting the Rats

At first before meeting the rats in lab, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous. I have always thought that their faces were cute, but their tails really bothered me. I was also under the impression that the rats were much larger than they really are. All I could think was that this was going to look like a street rat and I wouldn't be able to get used to it.  When the two rats were first brought in I was still a bit nervous when I first saw them for the first time, but after a while my nerves calmed down. It really helped that they weren't as big as I was expecting them to be. When I met my rat all my nerves were completely gone. Her face was so much cuter than I thought it would be and she was even smaller than the rats that Dr. Trench brought in. Even though she and I were both nervous and she was trying not to let me pick her up I finally got her, and it wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be. After I picked her up and held her for a few minutes I thought "okay this is going to be fun after all!" My lab partner, Carolyn, and I talked about what we were going to name her and after meeting her and seeing how cute she was we decided that Shirley was the perfect name. Today I went in and held Shirley again to get better at picking her up and putting her in her cage. It was much easier this time to get her out and both of us seemed much more relaxed than the first time we met!

Shirley peeking to see what was happening

Me holding Shirley the second time.