Julien, Romeo’s new roommate, has arrived, and Romeo is absolutely THRILLED about it, too! I’ve never seen this rat go so spastic with joy. It was so funny and so cute. After a quick walkthrough of Kmart (we didn’t buy anything) we headed over to the pet store, which stunk as usual and had a couple of obnoxious little kids in it just like 3 weeks ago when we bought Romeo. We figured that by now they’d have a new shipment of rats in. All that was with Romeo last time were two older white rats.

This time there were two brown ones like Romeo, a white one, and a couple of hooded ones. Julien stood out not only because he’s a hooded rat with a cool-looking dark stripe down his back (we didn’t want identical-looking rats), but because he seemed the calmest. I think he’s going to end up being more willing to be handled than Romeo is, though Romeo’s really warmed up to me. He wouldn’t even take food from me at first, let alone come to me.

Julien’s a lot younger than Romeo was when we got him and is half his size. I’m a little worried because he seems to be having trouble breathing, but hopefully he’ll be ok. The pair we had before Tinkerboy had the same problem at first and we didn’t think they’d make it.

We had enough food and bedding but while Tom was filling out the paperwork, I was quick to grab some wood chews for them in assorted colors and flavors. I think they’re flavored anyway. As much as I know about rats, I don’t know if they can see color, but I do know they can’t see nearly as well as they hear.

So we get Julien home, and as soon as we enter the place, Romeo barrels out of his hideaway and runs to the door of his cage like he usually does. That’s his way of greeting us and letting us know he wants attention. He’s become such a little beggar too, LOL. Then I open the door, open the box Julien’s in, and pick him up. Then I stick him in the cage and Romeo springs to life! He was like most rats in that he didn’t like living alone. We only had like 3 rats that didn’t mind going solo. Romeo dashed back and forth from sniffing and kissing Julien to hopping out to climb all over me as a way of saying, “Thanks, Mom!” LOL, he hopped in and out of the cage going back and forth from Julien to me.

I couldn’t get a picture of Julien cuz Romeo wouldn’t let me near him. Every time I’d try to take his pic Romeo would jump in the way. It was like he was telling me he didn’t want to share him at the same time he was determined to remind me who was king and who was here first.

Romeo was slow but through persistent training, we’ve been able to get him to follow simple commands and he definitely knows his name now. He’s also definitely not as skittish as he used to be, though he may never be big on cuddling up with me or following me around the place. He might have fun chasing me, though, as to them that’s a fun game. I first thought I wouldn’t be able to let this rat run around loose since I doubted I could get him to go home very easily, but I think I’ll be able to allow him more and more freedom with time. I definitely can’t be letting Julien out when he gets a little older without this one hopping out, too. When it’s just one rat they usually like to explore, but when it’s two they like to run around and have fun wrestling each other.