Want your Rattie Online ?

Your Rat may not make his little paws work a keyboard, but that doesn't stop him having a profile on the networking Web site www.myspace.com.

MySpace, which started in 2003 as a way for bands to showcase music and connect with fans, has become hugely popular among teens and 20-somethings, recently topping 50 million members. Users log on to build personal home pages with photos, music and confessional blogs. They also weave vast networks of "friends" by linking to other users' sites.

MySpace isn't just for people and bands. The site also hosts a burgeoning crop of tongue-in-cheek profiles for inanimate objects, spiritual figures and pets. In Alaska, which has the nation's second-highest rate of Internet use per capita, plenty of people are ghostwriting faux profiles.

YOu can have a number of Internet-connected rattie "friends" both here and Outside There's more than 700 dogs, cats, rats and birds are part of the MySpace group called "People Think I'm Weird Cuz I Made My Pet a Myspace Account."

"For people who take MySpace pet pages seriously, there is protocol to be followed," Nolan said. "Apparently, Ilke was not aware of the protocol."

"In a way, it's cute, but it's also a little strange. What does it mean that someone dropped my dog from their friend list?"

...Squeaks online