Name, age, sex, breed: Echo, 6 months old, female, dumbo rat

Owner, city: Laura Hoffmann, Zachary, Louisiana

How I got my name: In all honestly Echo’s name doesn’t have a bright and happy tale to it. As many of you may know of Echo from Greek Mythology. Echo is the name of a nymph that fell deeply in love with Narcissus, she wanted him more then he could ever know. Echo made the mistake of scorning Hera, who punished Echo by taking away her true voice. All Echo could do was repeat what others said. Sadly Echo cries herself away and fades into a ghost. When I first met Echo at the pet store (never buy a rat at a pet store like I did) she was scurrying all over my shoulders and rustling through my hair making the cutest chattering noises, oddly I felt terrified something bad would happen to her. I felt she’d die a swift death and be slowly forgotten by everyone but me. This made me think of the nymph Echo, and tada, she was named. Four days after I bought her she started breathing heavily, had red mucus draining from her eyes and nose, and could hardly breath. I brought her to the vet and they barely saved her from an upper respiratory infection… It proved my odd fear correct.

How we met: I was looking for a companion pet that would be easy to hide in a dorm room. At the time I was attending a university that did not allow pets so I needed a loving creature that would be easy to hide while I properly took care of it. Rodents were my goal, so I scoured the pet store for hamsters until the PetSmart employee told me rats were more cuddly. To this day I’m glad I took her word.

Personality type: Echo loves the world and everyone in it, or at least that’s how you feel when you meet her. She bounces around on the bed, scurries to greet you when you call her, and just appears to enjoy life! She is the alpha rat, and knows it. She lives with 2 other rats now and she pins them on their backs when they try to dominate her or don’t obey her.

Siblings: I’m sure she had many rat siblings but she lives with two female rats that are not blood relatives. She loves them as if they were though.

Pet peeves: Eve and Eden, the other rats, stealing from her food bowl or sleeping in her bed. When they do either of these things she chases them around the cage!

Favorite place to lounge: I bought her a fuzzy miniature bed that you can view in one of the images above, and she adored it… up until recently when I brought home a fuzzy leopard print hammock… now she prefers the hammock.

Favorite foods: Sunflower seeds, which I avoid giving her. Also watermelon, grapes, Cane’s chicken, and dried bananas.

Forbidden indulgences: Those darn sunflower seeds. I’ve read too many articles addressing them being quite bad for rats. They’re high in protein and high protein diets are a no no.

Strangest habits: Hoarding food into her stinky litter box and then never eating it or forgetting where she put it… another funny habit of hers is how ecstatic she gets when receiving food. I hand her a food pellet and she shoves it into her mouth, I quickly hand her another and she grabs it and falls forward unable to walk away with the food. She rocks back and forth trying to figure out what to do and then accidentally drops a pellet. It’s cute to watch.

Stand-out physical feature: Her adorable elephant ears!

Things you might not know if I didn’t tell or show you: If I make a kissing noise when holding her she’ll lick my lips two or three times. She’s only recently started doing this so it makes me feel quite special!

Thanks Laura and Echo!

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