# Thank you so much rat daddy!



## cassieb (Aug 6, 2013)

Since I have no way to tag you, I wanted to make sure you saw this! After almost giving up and reading ideas about helping snowbell and reading your immersion guild, we saved him. He likes our affection and just a few moments ago my daughter cori, who was terrified of him with how often he drew blood from biting her ran out here with the biggest smile and said, "MOM!! Snowbell came into my hand and let me pet him, he's nice again!" My heart melted and I now know any pet rattie can be helped if worked with. I'm so glad we didn't give up in him and its due to your immersion guild. If you right a book and have it published I want to buy the first copy. Thank you again for saving apart of our family<33333 


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## cassieb (Aug 6, 2013)

***write, shesh. 


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## Mouse (Aug 13, 2013)

Yes, thank you Rat Daddy! Although I have never neededpersonal behavior issues help, any thread you've posted in I make a pint to read, because you give such good advice, and your immersion thread has helped countless rat owners.


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## mcbride4227 (Aug 13, 2013)

If I need any advice on something big like behavior issues I as well go to Rat Daddy for advice. I'm currently trying to train my girls to be better shoulder rats, and his thread has really helped me. 


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## Stefni (Aug 10, 2013)

I too have been helped by rat daddy! My two boys are finally comfortable around me even though they're still a little skittish, things like that take time if you have a busy schedule. I see progress everyday thanks to that immersion thread and all the advice he has given  thanks again!!!

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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

You know you're most welcome and I'm more than a little flattered. 

When I first went on line looking for help with a most unusual rat, rather than getting helped, I got flamed on another forum, because "there was no such thing as a true shoulder rat". I suppose in the end it was a good thing because working on my own with Fuzzy Rat, our part-wild rat Fluffy (5 year old daughter named our rats) and observing wild rats really taught me to think way outside of the box. There was more to rats than the other web sites even dreamed of much less permitted. 

I kind of decided back then that if I ever found a forum that would tolerate outside the box thinking like immersion and shoulder rats, I would actually try to help other people with the kinds of issues that most web sites didn't even permit discussed. 

Due to the very kind patience and tolerance Rat Forum has shown me while my unorthodox theories proved themselves... immersion is helping lots of new rat owners become a real family with their rat packs and there are real live shoulder rats out there exploring the great outdoors. 

It's been a blast for me work with you guys and gals. Sure I've developed the theories and the procedures (with lots of help from Fuzzy Rat and other rats), but you love your rats so much that you put in the hours and patience that it takes and do the work to integrate your rat packs into your families. It's no easy thing to lock yourself into a small space with a vicious, biting rat and to "engage" him or her and I know it. And I know some folks here paid their dues in blood and made the miracles happen anyway. I may have gone there first, and drawn the map, but everyone makes their own journey.

By seeing your dedication to your rats, I feel inspired too. We love our rats in our household, and they have graced our lives with so much love, joy and wonder. It actually sometimes feels like a privileged to share that with you. When I think of what a great group of people I get to hang out with, it might actually be me who should be thanking you.


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## cassieb (Aug 6, 2013)

Rat daddy, please publish a book!


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## rivergirl10 (Jun 8, 2013)

cassieb said:


> Rat daddy, please publish a book!
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


That's an awesome idea! You know so much about rats and their behaviors, why not make it into a book? I would buy it any day and I know it be more than useful!  please. Lol


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Is it sad I want a Fuzzy Rat picture book more than a behavioral guide? It just seems like there'd be so many stories. It could also help with rats' public image. I said something about it a while back and I still really want it. Some artist needs to volunteer!


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## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

I would love to help out with a Fuzzy Rat picture book. Ive had people tell me my water colors and pen/ink drawings would work in a kids book.

So if Rat Daddy wrote one, or even a brief page-by-page draft/script, I would love to illustrate 
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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

OK, so I'll bite... A picture book project might be fun. And there are more than a few real life stories from Fuzzy Rat's life that might appeal to children. 

I've never done a children's book before... what might be our target age group? I usually write for adults so the vocabulary and the amount of text depends on the target readers. 

For really small children the story needs to be very short and simple... For school age kids we can tell a longer story and use a more advanced vocabulary. I assume that the art needs to be adjusted too. 

Off the top of my head, I could think of several good kiddie stories with morals...

Fuzzy Rat comes home, describing her rescue from the feeder bin.
Fuzzy Rat goes to the beach
Fuzzy Rat finds the rat traps
Fuzzy Rat eats the poison mushrooms.
Fuzzy Rat goes to the circus
Fuzzy Rat and the giant dumpster
Fuzzy Rat chooses Amelia
Fuzzy rat spent much of her life on the road going places and meeting people and there are dozens of good stories... some short and some more involved.

Up front, I don't know if there's a commercial up side to partnering in a Fuzzy Rat picture book so mostly it's a just for fun project; on the other hand Walt Disney did pretty well with his mouse named Mickey. Just one footnote, I have written for money, if you really want to get published the product needs to be slick to get past the editor and even then you don't get rich quick. A ten page how to article in a magazine with niche circulation was worth about $350.00 about 10 years ago as I recall and I've never seen a dime of my 10% on line royalties even though my articles are available for electronic e-zine download on a pay site. So it's something you have to do because you enjoy doing it. 
In writing, hard work is essential and profit is incidental to the project. You would be surprised how many editors won't read past a typo or a punctuation mistake. They are a very lazy breed.

If anyone is really interested in doing the art work let me know and we can talk further. And if anyone has any experience with children's books and knows something about what the target age group is or who is looking for content, let me know.

Having lived through the adventures of Fuzzy Rat, I don't have to make up the stories, those are real, all we have to do is to convert them into something someone might want their children to read. 

For better or worse, I've never done a children's book, but I think it could be lots of fun working with an artist on such a project, so I'm game.

As to writing a how to raise and train your rat book, that's a lot more time consuming, it's actually more up my ally, but I'll have to see if I can lay out the time to put one together. Editors and publisher's are funny creatures, most would rather publish something with correct punctuation than profound information. I once sold an article to a magazine before half of it made it through the fax. The editor loved my spelling, grammar and punctuation and anything she didn't have to proof read and correct pretty much got typeset. As most editors really haven't a clue what you are writing about, they are more concerned with how slick the work is, not how useful. And that by the way that is how some of the really bad and useless books you find on book shelves or at Amazon.com got there.

In the mean time, for all of your rat behavior needs, you've got me in person to help out when and if I can. And sometimes you might even get a Fuzzy Rat story thrown in for good measure.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Amazon now adays has self-publishing, and local libraries have started bringing in self-promoted children authors to do readings -- which could be a huge thing, especially with so many aspiring shoulder ratters. There are kick-start campaigns to raise funds as well.

As for the target age group, it would probably depend on how you wanted to do this. It could be a single book with many stories, like chapters. Those would allow for a more complex narrative, the target age (used to be at least) 5-10 yo; you could even push it to about 8-12yo depending on the narrative structure. If you went for separate books, the vocabulary would have to be a little more simpler. These books are usually for 5-8 yo (The overlap is for varying reading levels) -- the typical I-can-read picture books. I wouldn't aim for younger than that, as you would be less targeting the child audience and more the adults.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

http://www.kickstarter.com/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html?topic=200260520


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## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

For a childrens book its usually a few lines a page with big, bright colors and light material. I think Fuzzy Rat could teach a lot of lessons to slightly older school aged kids but the illustrations in those books vary from a full color page for a page of text to smaller drawings per chapter.When I get home from work Ill sketch a couple things and if you like where its headed, Ill do a couple full drawings. I have never worked on such a project, ive only done large single things for people. And I am not looking for any profit, really, just experience and the chance to work with a professional author.


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## Mouse (Aug 13, 2013)

I think that a book targeted for learning-to-read kids (5-7) would be good. Simple language would be needed, but the ideas could be a bit more complex than a preschool book, although there are more opportunities for pictures in a preschool book.


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## lcs (Feb 7, 2012)

> It could be a single book with many stories, like chapters.


This made me think of the Frog and Toad books. I know I enjoyed them and my daughter is just 6 and likes the fun and variety of those stories as does my almost-9 year old son. I think a friendly rat book would be great! My son talks about our rats all the time and all the kids are completely open to the idea of rats as pets and would enjoy a book about rats (especially a true one!) and I think it would be good for the adults to see rats in a positive light.

I think you guys have a great idea cooking!


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## cassieb (Aug 6, 2013)

5-10 would be a PERFECT age!!! Ohh please please do it!! I will help out in anyway I can since I keep pestering you about this!! 
You could be the one person to have people or atleast most people stop thinking rats are mean disease ridden animals!! Everything starts with the youth since they are our future!! 


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Exactly! I would love it if when people saw my rats they didn't scream, "WILLARD!" or "BEN!". A nice "FUZZY RAT!" would be very flattering.

Plus, it's not really been done before which is hard to say in children's books.
I think if we go chapter-book style it would best to go for the norm nowadays. Every other page has a half page illustration, and chapter pages have one full page illustration.


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## CJMoore (Jul 30, 2013)

I vote for a beginning level chapter book. You know the age where kids transition from picture books to chapter books. There are just not enough well written and interesting books at this level because they have to be easy AND interesting, which is hard to do. You can have more pictures than a chapter book since the audience is still very young. What I love about this is that your target audience will be both girls and boys.

I personally would LOVE a rat behavior and care book but I don't think that will work because your methods will be considered "dangerous," which can open you up to lawsuits. But, if you can overcome that, this book will do so much to help rats and their people. 

I need to add our THANK YOU to this thread!!!! You immersion thread (and Carly's efforts) have transformed our biting rat into and absolute sweetheart. Both our rats climb all over Carly and run to her for support and attention, it is quite remarkable. Carly was afraid of Kitty and now Kitty is her favorite. Kitty actually turns to mush when Carly holds her. The difference in that rat is night and day from just a couple of sessions. Thank you so much. Without your expertise Kitty would have stayed our pet but in name only since we were both afraid to handle her


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

You're welcome CJMoore, I'm glad your pack is sharing in the love.

I'm thinking about how to outline the picture book, thanks for the suggestions... But I've been just a little distracted lately and have been spending a lot of time lately working on a little project....


Hint....


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## cassieb (Aug 6, 2013)

AWWWWWWW!!!


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## CJMoore (Jul 30, 2013)

Congratulations on the little one!


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## CJMoore (Jul 30, 2013)

Rat Daddy, when will we be seeing the rest of the new little one? How old is she?


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