Just Like Cookies and Cream

It was a week before Mother's Day and I had started to develop a liking for “Rats!” this wasn't
exactly a bad thing though. For I had already liked rodents. I didnt know what it was about them
but I always found them cute. Anyway, my mom had shown me an adorable video of a black and
white spotted rat playing peek-a-boo with an elderly lady. I immediately fell in “love” with this
video I thought it was so cute.

“I wish I had a rat like that.” I mumbled in the hopes that my mom would hear me.

“ well um” she replied, slightly stuttering.

“I heard rats don't make good pets.” she said

in hopes that I would believe her lie. She looked at me nervously. I looked at her in
confusion. I knew it was a lie. It had to be. Why else would an old lady probably in her 80s have
a rat?

“Plus we have Bella.” she said

breaking the silence. Suddenly, my dog rushed in at the sound of her name. My mom put
her hand on Bella slightly petting her, getting Bella’s black and white fur everywhere.

“Ok mom i need some things from hobby lobby can we go?” I said.

“Sure hunny.” she replied. Suddenly my dad walked into the room.

“What are we talking about?” he said.

Mom replied with “were going to hobby lobby, would you like to join us?”

“Sure.” he said. then we were on our way.

When we got in my dads big truck I could not stop thinking about that adorable rat. I was
determined to at least see a rat in person. But little did I know that day wasn't so far away.
 Roughly a minute after we pulled into the Hobby Lobby driveway. My mom taped my
shoulder waking my daydreaming mind from the wonderous world it was in. i shot up with a
thud hitting my head and slightly stardeling my mom in the process. I apologize and we started
our long, treacherous journey to the Hobby Lobby entrance. We dodged cars, people, polles,
every now and then dogs, and hissing cats. It was rough we stumbled through the war ground to
reach the grand jewel . Finally we were there after what seemed like an eternity of battling black
and white cats that hissed and clawed, and swaying big black hounds. We walked in and were in
aw. The whole place was littered from stem to stern with Mother's Day decorations. I looked at
the decorations and forgot all about why we were there! I looked around. Then I looked at my
mom. I remembered! I was there for a mother's day gift for my mom. I quickly lead my mom to
the art supplies issle. I browsed the area. I picked out some white, red, purple, and pink glitter.
Along with some pink and white construction paper. Just then something caught my eye. It was a
green bog with a big red eyed frog and some grass on the front. I went to go look, my mom
following close behind. It looked like some sort of frog exhibit. My mom examined it from
behind me. I turned to my mom and said

“mom can I have this?”

“this?” She said looking at me obviously confused.

“yeah!” I said excitedly.

“Addison where would you even get a frog?” She said. I shrugged honestly I had no idea.
She sighed.

“how about I get you that rat you wanted?” By this time I had forgotten all about the rat. I
agreed. We immediately dropped everything and ran across the parking lot. I don’t know what
had happened but it felt like there wasn’t anyone there. The world felt…

STILL.

After what felt like seconds were on the road. We where on our what to Petsmart. I was so
excited I could barely contain it. After the long car ride and my parents suffering through my
loud screeches we were there.

Holding my now clammy hand my mom lead me inside. I wasn’t quite sure I wanted a rat so we
looked around. My mom walked with me to the front of a cash register my dad following. My
mom had asked if they could help us. This cashier was a man, he looked about in his 20s-30s, he
had dark brown hair with slightly lighter brown highlights, he also had brown eyes with the usual
Petsmart employees uniform with the addition of a red visor. My mom had specified that we
wanted a small animal. She also said that we didn’t want a reptile or bird. So he lead us straight
to the rodent section marked by the giant hanging sign that said rodents above our heads. It was a
light blue with a picture of a rat, guinea pig, hamster, and a bunnie huddled up together. I had
pointed to a little freckled, dwarf hamster that had reminded me of one of my first pets. It was
small with puffed up cheeks and a brown body spotted with black, white, and light brown spots.

My mom asked for a closer look at that one. He pulled the dwarf hamster out of the cage after in
shoring me that it was harmless. But later he would find that that dwarf hamster wasn’t
completely defenseless.

Thick red liquid was streaming down his arm we all looked in horror as he dropped the small
creature back into the cage with a yelp. The hamster had bit him. He was bleeding and not a little
bit. I looked up at my mom in horror. She returned the gaze as we slowly backed away from the
scene. That was a sight I would not soon forget.

I remember I had looked back one more time after disappearing behind the shelves. A lady was
holding a paper towel on his hand. The dripping blood seemed to have been gone but he looked
sad. I looked closer and realized that the girl did not look happy. She had her eyebrows furrowed
and she was frowning. I felt sort of bad but before I could speak my mom dragged me away.
Apparently while I was feeling bad and witnessing that sight my mom had asked another
employee for help. My mom had also told her that we wanted a rat. The lady informed us that
there were only male rats. I was ok with this. So she picked up an adult male rat out of the rat
enclosure and let me hold him he was big and seemed friendly. So we took him. We got in the
car and headed home. When we got home my mom and dad put the big rat enclosure together
with a tiny bit of assistance from me I mostly stared at the rat though . But there was one
problem…

“What was I gonna name him?” This swirled in my head for a while. Every now and then
interpreted my another thought but no matter how much it got interrupted or no matter how many
times it left it always came back nagging at me even harder until finally I’d found one. The
perfect name…

“London,” I said aloud.

“hm?” My mom replied.

“London,” I repeated.
 “I’m gonna name him London I specified,”

my mom thought it was a great name and my dad agreed. As we put London in his cage
my mom read a little more about rats, as she does about most things. And she found that rats
need to be together or they die faster. She also found that to introduce two or more rats together
you need to put them in a tub together or a large bowl not filled with water. So we placed
London in the tube gently while we sent dad to go get two other baby male rats.

later dad had arrived with a box with two small rats in it. I was sitting on the toilet
already kinda bored. London wouldn’t even let us touch him he would snap at us if we tried. We
placed the two smaller rats into the tub with London and watched they kept biting each other so
mom called Petsmart to see what we do and the lady said that that was normal and there was
nothing wrong with it but we greatly doubted that. So we had to make a choice to get rid of one
of the baby rats, get rid of both the baby rats, or get rid of London. I’m the end I got rid of
London against my moms wants she had grown fond of London but I honestly hated him. Not
long after I decided to name one cookie and one cream due to their black and white spots. For a
while it was hard to tell them apart but after I hung out with them and played with them more I
just knew…

it’s been a while after that happened and cookie is the only one left his brother cream is
no longer with him. He had lost his sight and can’t walk properly but despite all of this, he's still
continuing through each day I’m so proud of him. And I know his brother is too.