Just for fun Shawn got a part-time job at PetSmart. He ended up adopting three yet unpurchased rats from the store in an effort to save them from the grisly fate of being fed to a python. At first I thought this was weird, but they ended up being friendly and kind of fun/entertaining. They were very social and would crawl all over you if you let them. Shawn would ocassionally let them run around the apartment and when it was time for them to get back into their cage Isabeau gladly implemented her herding skills to round them up. The rats were named Sigmund, Albert, and, well to be honest I can't remeber the third one's name - it was named after a scientist or philosopher or something. Anyway, these rats lived in relative luxury. Shawn got them a three story cage and all sorts of toys and bedding material. They always had food and fresh water. They had Isa for a playmate/mother hen - they really made her herding instincts kick into gear and she would obsessively watch them even when they were in their cage so Shawn would have to put a gate up to the office door where their cage was located so she wouldn't stare at them all day. It was rat paradise as far as I could tell. Well one day during free roam of the apartment the rat whose name I can't remember bit into an electrical cord. Then there were two. Some time later Sigmund "bit the hand that fed him" so Shawn "set him free" outside - I lived across the hall from Shawn at the time and a few frigid days later my dog Bear came into my apartment from the backyard with a "rat-sicle" in her mouth. (Obviously Sigmund didn't make it far on his own.) Then there was one. Albert was all that was left, not that he seemed to mind. My then-husband and I went on a vacation and Shawn looked after our dog Bear. She and Isa got along fairly well, but when Shawn would leave for work or for an extended period of time he would put Bear back in my apartment and leave Isa in his so they could each have their own space. One day before going to work he cleaned Albert's cage. He was running a little behind and in his haste he forgot to attach the top potion of the cage to the base of the cage. To aid in getting out the door faster he decided to leave Bear and Isa in his apartment together, and as usual he put a gate across the doorway to the office (where Albert's cage was located). He didn't think much of it until he got home from work and headed down the hallway towards the office. He later told me that it looked like a tornado hit his office. The gate was toppled over, there were papers and books everywhere, a floor lamp was tipped over, the desk chair was across the room, and Albert's cage was in pieces. Albert lay in the middle of the floor (dead - obviously). Shawn said he wasn't torn up or anything he was more like a "bag of mush". As far as he could tell Bear (who we lovingly referred to as a "critter getter") must have busted through the gate, knocked over the cage, and then proceeded to relentlessly chase Albert around the room until she caught him. He said "I'm pretty sure she thought it was a game, and that it was a damn fun one at that. Except for when what she thought was a toy stopped playing". He could tell that Bear was sorry by the way she was acting. I, of course, felt terrible. Shawn said "Well it's not like Albert didn't have a good run. The Jurassic Park-style ending that was a bit of a downer though!"