https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-couple-teaches-rescued-rats-to-drive-tiny-cars-1.6940357
To appreciate why Kendal Crawford couldn’t have been more pleased to get a pair of tiny handmade cars for her birthday, we need to go back to when she and her partner Shaun Stephens-Whale decided to adopt a pet.
Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/Nz9IS
This is fucking precious.
As someone who adores rats, I absolutely hate how short their lives are. I'd love to keep some as pets but I couldn't emotionally handle having my heart broken every 2 to 3 years when one of them dies.
I've been hoping someone would start a gambian pouched rat breeding project because of exactly this
Yes! I legitimately looked into this for that very reason. Instead, my wife and I have a rat puppet that we've personified to the point that we consider it part of the family.
I keep seeing jumping spiders that look to die for and then the reality check of their lifespans always brings me back down.
I know what you mean there as well. I was always very arachnophobic but over the last few years have mostly gotten over it by treating the spiders in my house as something like hands-off pets and giving them names. Jumping spiders are amazing little creatures but, yeah, the lifespan makes them a non-starter.
If you like sci-fi, check out the Children of Time series. It's about a race of uplifted jumping spiders. The author does a great job of building a concept of their society based on their current characteristics as a species.
It will never stop making me laugh that a rat on the BC/Alta border goes one way getting to be "adopted" and taught to drive a tiny car; or goes the other way and every single person would risk their life to swerve into and run over it with a full sized one.
While cute, we as humans need to stop teaching smart animals how to use our tech. We are basically asking to be replaced at this point. haha
"He looked a little rough,” ... “This is a really special little guy,”
There is a lesson in there somewhere...
