| Among the countless and eclectic pets we had as kids, we had a white rat named "Irma". Both we and the cats and dogs had much fun with the little creature. We kept "Irma" in a cardboard box and inevitably, one morning we found a hole in the side of the box where "Irma" had staged a daring escape during the night by "chewing her way out". We looked for her for several weeks and concluded that she had made "a clean get away". Several weeks later, we finally discovered her living inside the sofa! She had a nice "rat's nest" inside the stuffing and had several pieces of aluminum foil from gum wrappers, etc. stashed in her sofa nest. We never did figure out the reason for all the shiny stuff she had brought in there. (I always figured she took a "shinning" to them...) About a year later, when Kennedy was President, our grandmother read an article that Caroline's pet white rat had also escaped and was at large somewhere in the White House! Our grandmother sent a letter to the President and suggested that they look in the sofas. We never heard if Caroline ever found her white rat in the sofa or elsewhere. However, our grandmother eventually got a nice card from the President thanking her for her suggestion! Hmmmm, it seems to me every time there's a Democrat as president, there's a "Rat" in the Whitehouse! |
