Friends with a rat

I think my Boomer befriended a rat. I went downstairs and saw a rat eat dogfood out of his bowl and Boomer was just sitting over the bowl staring at the rat. The rat took off but this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Arent dogs supposed to kill rats or scare them off? Have any of your dogs been friends with something weird?

Now I'm paranoid that I have a rat problem and I didn't even know rats lived in Vegas...

Rats live EVERYWHERE! Next to cockroaches, they're probably the most successful species on the planet.

They are, in truth, intelligent creatures, not that I'd want them setting up a comfortable home life in my basement.

Well, I don't think it's that weird. Maverick is perfectly fine with my rabbits. They could run over him and he wouldn't care. He watches them and sometimes sniffs them. At our old apartment they both (rabbits) had free run of the house.

I think it depends on the dog/breed. My bf has to hold mikey back when I play with them. He sits there and licks his lips! It makes me so paranoid because I love my bunnies too. But I'm not postive that he would do anything. A few times I've forgotten to put the bunny away when the dog comes back in and he doesn't pay any attention to it. I think he's so excited to be back in the house! He loves the house. I won't ever trust him with the buns though.

So, maybe the rat is good company.

Saje

Better buy an extra bag of dog food next time you run out

Chazhound

Did you know (I don't know why you would) that the province, Alberta, that I grew up in has a very successful rat-free program?

Well, I don't really agree with it, or at least their methods but it was nice not to worry about rats.

Anyway, if you look alberta up on the map you'll see that one border is the mountains the other is the cold north the other is Sask. (prairie province) and the american border. So, the Sask. and American borders are really the only places that they have to "patrol"

From what I understand the farmers along these borders are required to keep rat poison in all their graneries... and no pet rats are allowed into the province.

I'd have to look up all the facts but I do know I lived there for 22 years and never saw a rat. The first time I ever saw one was in Utah. They were huge! I was a kid and there were people around this stream? river? lake? pond? slough? (i don't remember) they were feeding the ducks and I thought they were their to feed the giant rats.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3441?opendocument


That was an educational website for me! I didn't know all the history behind "Norway rat" control. I think of such odd things.

Ok, so maybe I'm the only one interested.

Ciao

We saw Blondie playing with a dead mouse yesterday ewwwww it made me think of the stories I've read on the forum about that, yikes! But he won't befriend animals that aren't dogs , he even barks at flying birds passing and has a lot of fun when he casually finds a fly or mosquito! He's weird