Tickle, Tickle, Tickle,

Jonathan Balcombe the animal behavior research scientist for Physicians and author of his newly published book ‘‘Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good.”

The book is the first to explore pleasure in non-humans.

For animals pleasure is ‘‘not just about finding food or avoiding pain. Animals have moments. They have good times and bad times.”

For example, in one study he discusses in the book, two groups of rats were analyzed. In one group, the rats were periodically tickled, the other group of rats were pet on the back.

After some time, the researchers took a single rat from each group and put it at one end of a box, and reached their hand into the other end of the box to measure how long it took for the rats to come to the hand. They determined that the rats that were tickled would come to the hand four times as quickly as the rats that were just petted, Balcombe explained.

‘‘They were just ecstatic,” he said.

...will be some interesting reading

Debbie "The Rat Lady" at a Library Near You...

Paradise library will hold its summer program 10:30-11:30 a.m. Fridays from June 23 to July 28. The schedule will begin with pet stories followed by crafts June 23. Rescue dog stories will be followed by guest Bill O'Hara from the Butte Valley Animal Disaster Group with his dogs June 30. Fish stories, with a cast of fish, will be July 7. Service dogs stories and guest Sean Plummer of the K-9 Crossroads and his dog will be featured July 14. Paradise Friends of the Library July 21 will sponsor Ron Greenberg with his snakes and other reptiles to go along with the reptile stories. The last program July 28 will be stories about rats with guest Debbie Ducommun of Chico, the "Rat Lady."

Programs are free and open to the public.

...more rattie P.R. what a great educational program

Of Rats and Men

Pandolfi was a good sport. As the self-proclaimed "Rat Chick"—some California gal had previously staked her claim to "Rat Lady"—she's heard it all before. And more often than not, in the course of her rat-rescue mission, she dispels "the myths" about her favorite rodents. She adopted her first rats some two decades ago—during her "punk rock" days—and once hosted 40 that she rescued from medical experiments. Through her "Rat Chick Rat Rescue & Advocacy Group," she's turned rat haters into rat lovers. So, delving into my psyche for some repressed horror—none was found—that's what she tried to do with me. "This is good for you," Pandolfi said in a shrink's tone, as she let a couple rats scurry out of their cage, which sits on an end table right next to her couch.

...rat myth busters