This article is from the Jan./Feb. 1986 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Jamie Przybylski, age 13

I’m going to tell you a touching story about a loving rat named Thor. He was loved by all children at a school he lived in for a year. He was there for the children to learn companionship and loving for all animals. After he lived in the Kindergarten class room for a year, they could not keep him anymore. So they gave him to me.

When I brought him home he fell right in place. My mom didn’t like him at first, but after a while she loved him. We all handled him and he loved the attention we gave him.

After we had him for two and a half years he got a tumor on his front left leg. We took him to a local vet, but he couldn’t help him because he was so old. The vet offered to put him to sleep, but since he was just a good friend to me I said no. He lived for another three weeks until he died at an age of about three and a half years old. We buried him under an old tree in our front yard. We’ll never forget him because he’ll be in our thoughts and prayers.

After Thor passed away we bought another rat named Templeton. He was just as good as Thor. Tempelton is a lot friendlier than Thor was even though I still love Thor. I bought Tempelton at a local pet store. He was the best looking rat in the cage so I bought him. I bought another rat because I went to the Del Mar Fair and saw a rat that looked just like Thor. I talked to the people that were there. They belonged to AFRMA; that’s why I joined AFRMA. I think that one good rat can take the place of another good rat. I love Thor and Tempelton just the same even though Thor is dead.