Story:
I approached the pet store, the brightly lit interior nearly blinding me. From where I was on the sidewalk, I could almost make out the face of a small puppy, some beta fish, and a hamster. Becoming more anxious to adopt my rat, I hurried to the front door and pulled it open. I was bombarded with massive photos of animals and little kids- toddlers looking at their fish, a young girl staring at her guinea pig with a cheesy grin. These over-sized images were lined up on the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and leaning on racks of chew toys. I breathed out a breath of winter air. I blinked as my eyes began adjusting to the light when I stepped in from the darkness outside. It was cold out there, and I shivered as I pulled on my beanie.
Walking slowly through the aisles, I looked admiringly at hamsters, ferrets, guinea pigs and mice. I looked over to see a large row of fish. Finally, I made it to the rat section. Right next to the snake food mice, (:c) were 2 rat enclosures stacked on each other. Through the shiny, polished glass I could see a ton of brown and white spotted rats, the kind I used to have. I ooohed and awwwed at the fantastic sight as my eyes drifted to the cage on the bottom. One red-eyed-white rat was standing by the water bottle, cleaning its little face and looking at its reflection in the glass. Cute, but not the one I was exactly looking for. As I touched my hand to the glass, a small black rat with a white underbelly bounded up and leapt onto where my hand was. I cooed, absolutely adored by this tiny, outgoing rattie, and I looked into its eyes. It had black, beady eyes, which some people would say looked creepy and gross, but to me, they just looked like they wanted some love. I bent over to see it better. Its tail faded from dark gray to pink, and it was straight and long. Even when it jumped around everywhere like a hyper puppy, its tail never bent of drooped.
FLAWLESS!
After making the decision I was going to buy this one, I waited for a worker to come and let me hold it. When she finally came, and unlocked the cage, I reached in. The white rat just kept staring at itself in the glass. Such a self-centered and perfect rat it was. The black rat, after realizing it was going to be picked up, sprinted around and dodged ours hands. The worker would try to grab the rat, which I learned was a girl, and then I tried to grab it. She wouldn't stop running! This little orange house was right in the way. She was hiding behind it, ready to run away. I lifted the orange house to find two brown and white spotted rats sleeping. They were so cute! Sadly, I woke up one of them.
We finally caught it, I held it but it jumped on my shoulder, and the worker put her in a small cardboard container made for carrying small animals. On the way home, I decided that her name was going to be....... Beanie, Bean, or Java Bean
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