Monika Mikytova
Contact: fru_fru_cz@hotmail.com
Location: Prostejov/Czech Republic
Brief history: We had animals at home for as long as I can remember. We had hamsters, guinea pigs and also from time to time a driven-over ousel /who had to recover in our flat over night, of course/. But the present looks like this: 2 dogs – darlings – Brit /shih-tzu/ and Didi /lhasa-apso/ and then there are my lovely rats...
Rats are my life as well as my two darlings :o)) I never thought of having rats as pets. It just simply happened about two years ago /05/2002/. I was walking my dog Brit when I saw something in the grass. I looked closer and saw a little greyish ball of fur. I thought that it is a mouse but when it turned and I saw "that tail" I was sure that this was not a mouse. When I tried to grab it, it stayed calm, so I decided to take it home. My mum took us straight to a vet where we found out that it is a healthy rat. / oh, and as we were sitting in vet’s waiting room we found an ad for a female dog who was abandoned – our Didi – and the rest is history... :o)) /
So, we cadged an aquarium from our neighbour and went to a pet shop. After buying all the important things we accomodated our newcomer in the aquarium and because we didn’t know if it is a male or female, we named it – Fru Fru. Fru Fru /FF/ was completely domesticated so, she either ran away from somebody or someone let her go. She was about 2 – 3 months old – beautiful husky who gradually fully whitened and also rusted on her hips later on. Unfortunately my find was badly planned – I was supposed to go to Holland a month later. My parents weren’t very happy about my leaving FF at home so I asked my host family in NL if they agree with my bringing FF to NL. They had no objections so after about a month I brought FF with me to Holland. I bought her a new fully equipted cage in Amsterdam /for 55 Euro - too much/. It’s very spacious only quite low, so I’m planning to construct my own cage soon. Fru Fru was alone for about 9 months but I didn’t see any indications of loneliness at all. But just to be sure I decided to get her a friend in Holland – Quinny. Quinny is a female rat with broken hooded blue marks. She is really cute and her domestication didn’t take very long. "My girls" had to get used to a 19-hour bus trip from NL – The Czech Republic and back during my 15-month long stay in Holland. We underwent this every 2 months and I must say that "my girls" took this much better than drivers or some passengers.... :o)) Eventually, I agreed to „smuggle out“ of Holland rats for Iv whom you all know from chat on potkan.jinak.cz. Sometimes I travelled with as many as 6 rats at once. At least I wasn’t bored and at the same time I met a great rat enthusiast Marina who coincidentally lived in Haarlem as well as I did.
Now, to shorten this, last year in September /2003/ I decided to return to The Czech Republic where I wanted to continue with my studies. FF and Q had to get used to a new environment in a hostel in Frydek-Mistek. We got permission, so there was nothing in our way. Only!! By the end of October last year Fru Fru ran away from her cage at night and we haven’t seen her since. I was travelling every Friday to Prostejov with them and one trip for her was simply the last. All the family mourned over it. Even our Brit was sad that he had one rat less for catching – in front of the aquarium, of course – he watches my rats instead of watching TV. So the worst thing is that I don’t even know how she ended up. My favourite foundling got lost again, I guess that it was her destiny... Quinny was alone for about 2 weeks and after that I decided to get her a friend. Stinkie is an albino, pink eyed female, even though I initially didn’t want a pink eyed rat. But she is a cutie, well, at least I hope that she will become one in a short time. Stinkie is too shy to be a friend with me now. I bought her when she was about 2 months old and they got along with Quinny very well from the start. FF was quite a loner; it took her some time to get along with Quinny, but Quinny is really social and that is one of the reasons I didn’t want to wait too long with getting a new rat for her. Stinkie is starting to make progress. She licks oatmeal from my finger without letting me know that I’m not really one of her favourite people in the world... / it was quite fun in the pet shop I got her from as well, because as she was trying to run away from me, she almost ended up between snakes which they sell there... :-o / So I hope that it’ll settle down in a few months. Sometimes it looks like I’m beating her all day long. She is so scared of me that she often jumps back into her cage so quickly that I sometimes wonder if she hasn’t hurt herself!!
Definitely, I can not imagine my life without rats now. I think that they are the loveliest darlings under the sun. When I see people in our hostel who reacted strangely at the beginning, and now they are so far that they bring different goodies to "my girls" and say that they would like to get a rat too at some point, it makes me feel good. That’s maybe why I couldn’t resist when I heard that Iv has some spare Siames rats. I think that they are one of the sweetest rats of all. I got a siames rex female – Lima from her. Lima is magical and the most important thing is – she would never even think of trying to „taste“ me :o) . I have some trouble with Lima and Stinkie as they don’t get along very well, but I’m sure that it’ll sort out /there was no problem with Quinny, of course/. So I have a triple group now: Hooded, Albino and Siames :o)) . I’m sure that they’ll be much happier now. I think that I found the right number so I’m not planning more rats for now.
In any case I truely believe that it was destiny with my Fru Fru back then, a destiny which wanted to enrich my clearly awfully boring and deadly life. And believe me: only a rat moving freely around a room can enrich your life this much...
Favourite web pages:
For more pictures look here:
http://sweb.cz/fru.fru.cz/fotogalerie.htm