The rat whisperer: Summerside woman rescues 'misunderstood' rodents

They snuggle in bed with her when she watches movies, ride around in her pocket when she cleans the house, and  perch on her shoulder when she cooks breakfast.

Some people might think it's odd — she says her mother finds it "terribly strange" — but to Kris Ballum, her pet rats are almost like little kids.

If we're sitting here watching a movie they'll get in the bed and they'll run around and burrow in the blankets and snuggle with us.— Kris Ballum

"They just they want to follow you everywhere," she said. "They don't want to miss anything."

She and her fiance have eight of them living in their Summerside, P.E.I., mini-home, not to mention a rabbit and three cats. They all get along peacefully, she said.

She'd said she would take in even more rats if necessary. She runs Rat Haven, what she calls "an in-home rat rescue." It has its own website and Facebook page.

"Any rats that need a home, whether it be someone has a pet rat and they can't take care of it anymore, they're moving can't take it with them, what have you, they will contact us. I take them directly into my home," she said.

"Oftentimes we will just keep them as a pet or we will work with them, make sure they're healthy, make sure they have a good temperament to be a pet and then re-home to someone whom we've screened and decide that they're a good home for them."

She's like the rat whisperer. Ballum said her eight rats have names and all come when they are called. 

"We like to refer to them sometimes as apartment-sized dogs, because their temperament is so similar," she said. "They can be litter trained. They're so smart they can be trained to obey almost any commands."

The rats sleep in their cages at night — and Ballum said her mother insists they stay in their cages when she comes to visit — but they get plenty of  time to roam freely during the day.

"Most of them are kept in my bedroom so when I get up in the morning if I'm going to the kitchen to make my coffee. I've got at least four of them right at the edge of the cage begging to come with me so I've got to stick at least one of them in my pocket and they'll just hang out in my pocket or hang out on my shoulder while I'm doing my thing," she said.

"If we're sitting here watching a movie they'll get in the bed and they'll run around and burrow in the blankets and snuggle with us."

Ballum said domestic rats aren't the dirty animals some people think they are. 

"They're constantly bathing themselves," she said.

"I think they're very misunderstood. A lot of people see them as like a sewer rat, like a rodent, something dirty that's going to bite you and attack you, but in fact it's the total opposite."

Ballum would like to change the public perception of rats. She said they "love attention" and make great pets. They're inexpensive to keep — food for all eight rats cost about $30 a month, she said — and she said they have even been good for her health.

"I've dealt with a lot of depression and anxiety in my life and animals have always been one of my go-to coping mechanisms. I find rats to be very, very therapeutic."

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