Rat-lovers Unite For Fest

Rats hardly ever get respect.

``When I say I do rat rescue, people think gutter rats,'' said Diane Nesom, the San Jose woman who founded Rattie Ratz rat rescue eight years ago.

So let's get something straight: The rats that took over the auditorium at the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA on Sunday were pet rats -- not the scourge of sewers and subway tunnels.

``You can't compare the two,'' Nesom said. ``The domestic pet rats, you can teach them to do tricks. You can potty-train them. You can teach them their names.''

In fact, believers say, pet rats are practically like little dogs. And there were plenty of believers at Rattie Ratz' second annual Wonderful World of Rats expo and adoption fair in San Mateo.

There were also booths selling plastic climbing blocks and fleece rat hammocks, fruit-flavored rodent yogurt and Rats magazine. Kids could toss beanbags into the holes in yellow cardboard cheese wedges, and rat owners of all ages could bone up on cage tips (``rats are social, so put their cage in a room that you use often'') and rat facts (``despite what many people think, rats are very clean'').

Last year's event drew 250 rat-lovers, Nesom said, and this year's festival looked to be on pace for the same.

Among them: Eve Brockmann, who stood inside one of the pens marked ``Watch Out -- Rats About'' to play with some of the rodents up for adoption. Two had climbed up onto her shoulders, winding their tails around her like a necklace.

``They adopted me,'' she said. The San Francisco woman is a longtime rat owner who came seeking companions for her rats back home.

``You can sense that they have a mind that's working,'' she said. ``You can develop an emotional relationship with a rat.''

Kate Pacheco came to the expo needing to be convinced.

``We've had this on the calendar for a month now,'' she said. She and her husband, Michael, had been looking for a pet they could keep in their San Francisco apartment, where dogs and cats aren't allowed. Michael Pacheco suggested rats, which he'd owned as a kid, but Kate Pacheco felt iffy.

``I really wanted to make sure before I brought one home that I could be able to bond with one,'' she said.

In the adoption pen, she followed her husband's lead, cradling a rat in her arms and tickling it behind its ears. She was hooked.

``They're very gentle,'' she said. In the end, they took two females home in a small cardboard box (the two-level metal cage was already prepared at home).

In another pen, Leah Hagar, 11, placed one hand in front of the other, forming a makeshift treadmill for a small tan-and-white rat.

``She's so cute!'' Leah called to her sister Natalie, 9. ``She has strong hands.''

They were trying, Natalie explained, to see if this rat would be a good companion for Half-Baked, their rat back home in Oakland.

In the end, the new rat -- dubbed Sophia -- passed the test.

Why rats? ``They're so fuzzy and cute and small and fun to play with,'' Natalie said. She's even formed her own Help Rats Club. To join, she said, you have to put your hand over your heart ``and convince people to love rats.''

...love your little buddies...