"Rabies from rats is very rare and has never been documented in the United States. However, a handful of cases of rabies from a rat bite have been recorded in Poland (Zmudziñski and Smreczak 1995, described in Wincewicz 2002), Israel (Gdalevich et al. 2000), Thailand (Kamoltham et al. 2002) and Surinam (Verlinde et al 1975)."

I wonder if they were able to exclusively link the transmission of rabbies to the rats in Poland, Israel, etc.

I'll have to let my vet know he was wrong.

The Black Plague, however....lol. I know, I know, technically, it was the fleas on the rats that spread the plague that killed half of Europe. But still.

I used to have pet rats, loved them. Flea-less pet rats, that is. :|

Oh My God... I had to laugh so hard when I read this!!!! LOL!

I have a pet ferret named Smokey. I live in California where they are illegal and not of the norm. When I tell people about him, people always freak. They say ferrets are "baby killers" and will chew the fingers and noses off babies. I don't understand where this comes from. My ferret sleeps in his hammock all day, plays with my dogs, snuggles with me, watches me take a shower (lol) and is just a pleasant little cutie. Are these "baby killer" rumors true?? I have never seen anything in print that would justify them.

there was a case of bubonic or black plague in the the US just last year.

VERY important to deflea your rats. :) They do have antibiotics to treat it but you have to catch it within 24 hours or so.

http://www.dreamstime.com/fleas-and-...mb15386033.jpg

I love rats too.

I am moved to hear that rats have empathy. :) So cute.

I recently learned armadillos carry Leprosy...I had no idea. With the weather changes they are arriving in TN in larger numbers now.

Possums do creep me out, I admit. One lives behind our apartment and my roommate screams her head off every time it peers in our window. Big Butch girl meltdowns crack me UP!

Bugs? Our once every 13 year cicada infestations creep me out, but individual bugs I just leave alone mostly. After living in South America and Texas, our TN bugs seem kind of insignificant.

A coworker had a pet praying mantis until it flew off a d a bird ate it.

Prarie dogs carry it.
I am fascinated by Bubonic Plague and other infection deseases like Leprosy, Tuberculosis, Polio, etc....

Bats would fit into this category. I personally think that they are kinda cute. ;) AND I love the fact that they eat mosquito's (which is a WONDERFUL friend to have in the south) Bat's eat around 250,000 pounds of insects a night. I suppose many people are scared of them due to rabies or Ozzy lol. I haven't heard of a rabid bat swarm, targeting humans however.

http://articles.latimes.com/1994-02-...17_1_bat-house

All I can think of is the 250,000 lbs of bat poop.

I wonder how easy it is to train bats?

I think they're cute. And they laugh. Makes them one of my favorites.

I love possums, although it hurts like hell when they bite. I have one chubby possum and two huge skunks that have hung around my house for so many years that I now feed all three, and just hang out on the porch with them. I posted about how I accidentally tried petting the skunk instead of my cat last night when I was distracted and not really paying attention to what was standing beside my leg. They are pretty tame now, but I'm not sure if they are pet-able quite yet...lol The skunks are not big fans of the possum though, and usually bully him around a bit. Especially if there are sausage balls involved. lol I also used to have a couple raccoons, but they have been gone for a while.

I used to have pet mice and rats when I was a kid too. They are very sweet.


I must admit they are kinda cute too, although they do freak me out when they buzz my head during my late night smoking outside...lol

who could resist this?
 

The idea of rats with fleas makes me want to curl into the fetal position. :eek: I saw a picture of something once called Rat King and I was honestly on edge for days.

Story time:

When I was about 8 or so, there was a weird scratching behind my bed at night. I told my mom, and she assumed it was probably a mouse or something (it was a pretty rural area). Later on, I discovered, there was a hole the size of a fist behind my bed, my mom freaked and got it closed up asap. She told me a few years later that not longer after that she saw a giant rat (she said it was chihuahua size, but who knows) in our garage. Thus the dislike and fear of rats began.

Bats are awesome! We love our bats . . . on summer evenings, they swarm above the swimming pool just as we start noticing we are being bitten by pesky bugs. During the day they sleep, hanging outside our attic between the slats of the attic vents, their little toes curled in the screens.

Maybe it was really a chihuahua. :D

O' Possum!
 

I've never had a pet rat, but I understand they're incredibly smart. I adore bats and on any farm I'd have, I would build a bat barn for shelter (and for my own purposes - the guano is excellent fertilizer and as has already been noted, they're the best mosquito control). Until we get a handle on the white nose syndrome and start reclaiming bat habitat, I am very worried about our bats.

I have three possums come into my life. One was hit and stunned and lying on a road. A second was crawling across a road slowly. He had a hernia. And this fall, I found a dead mother possum with one of her babies tossed to the side and dead. When I went to move her body, I noticed movement inside her. There was a little one still alive.

I took the two first possums that I found on the road to a vet in Baltimore (where I was living) who was a wildlife rehabilitator. Both did terrifically with treatment and were re-released over time.

The baby opossum I found this fall was discovered on the road late at night. I let her stay in her mother's pouch all night in a box inside and with blankets over them both (warmth is an issue). The next morning I found that my regular vet, who is a rehabilitator, was out of town but his office referred to another vet a little farther away. The baby was still alive but not moving as much.

The other vet did take her right away and they nursed her as the mother would have and did a great job with her. I felt pretty blessed being given the opportunity to be some part of each of these stories. I don't know why the mature opossums let me touch them and move them into my car. I prayed and talked to them before I did and used a blanket. But that they trust me is one of the coolest things ever.

Thank you for this thread, Nat, and I've enjoyed the posts here. I think myself lucky to live in a world with a wide and beautiful variety of species.

http://virtuallyjulie.com/images/200...s/Jul25017.jpg

Horny Toad
 

I love these. I had one as a kid and my great grandma sat on it and squished it. There was screaming.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild...izardlarge.jpg

Or one of the random cats that was always hanging around our house. :)

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-713416

Wow.. this made me cry. I think disabled animals kind-of fit in this category. The are often discarded and overlooked. I myself have a disabled dog (deaf) who was going to be put to sleep just because he was deaf. What an amazing story and a sweet little baby. Wow! Zippy RULES!

:-D
Starry

*squeals!!!* ick ick ick ick!!!! oh, I had a nasty run-in with one of these ugly buggers recently. My li'l dog got hold of one in the backyard around midnight one night... ok, good puppy, protectin' Mama from the overgrown rat... but... ick ick ick ick!!!! it STANK and I was SO glad the dog's shots were up to date ... Funny thing though... I thought she'd killed it. I hauled the dog off the possum and ran in the house ranting the whole way about having to deal with possum remains in the middle of the night and it cold and wet outside.......... erm, possums "play possum" when they're scared..... when I walked back outside to assess the situation the critter had disappeared.......... so the one good thing I can so for 'em, is I haven't had to bury one yet. *laughs!* .....