The 'Runaway' Rat!

Violet, Violet, Violet...
What can I say, I will start back at the beginning (and make it brief) Santa went off his rocker last year and brought Owen and Mere rats for Christmas - which, do the research, make very good pets- the best of all the rodents with the shortest life span. So any way, we have these 2 rats, Violet and Remmy. They live in a cage on top of hutch in the basement BUT we don't shut the cage doors (unless we have guests because they seem to freak most people out especially my aunt and Kirk's dad) so we don't shut them up and that way they can run around on the top of the hutch climb their cage whatever and it has seemed to work just fine until now! You see, Violet has taken to 'jumping' off of the hutch and running around the house. We had found her missing a couple of times before this past week and we just joked and said Remmy had pushed her off in search of food and didn't think much of it. (Violet is MUCH more adventurous then Remmy who prefers to stash and gather all the food and will eat anything, Violet is picky!) But as of lately, Violet has obviously mastered the whole 'jumping' thing because she is freely wondering the house. Labor day weekend we went to the movies and when we got back and walked in the kitchen there she was at the dog's bowl looking up at us - didn't think much of it, just thought it was one of her "outings". Then Monday night I was reading to Owen in bed and kind of heard a scratching but didn't think much of it even though the dogs were outside. Well, I continued to read when all of the sudden there was Violet coming right towards us from the foot of Owen's bed, I screamed at first because she scared me. She is a rat! and then Owen and I laughed and just let her stay till we were finished. Let me back up on how she got on the bed. Owen and Mere like to take the rats into his room and close his door and play with them (see Meredith's room post on why they can't play in there). At the foot of his bed is a mesh hamper that we keep all his webkinz and other stuff animals in and they like to hide the rats in there and make them climb out. Well Violet being the rat that she is learned to climb out and then grab his comforter and get herself on the bed, which is what she did Monday night. So back to her latest and greatest. Last night at I don't even know what time, Cody (our dog who sleeps at the foot of our bed) jumps up and starts shuffling around stirring me awake some what and thank goodness for that because the same scratchy sound from Monday was coming from my bed!!!! I looked on top of my comforter and saw it moving and lifted it up and THERE SHE WAS!!!! crawling up to me. Now how she got on my bed IDK other then well she is a rat! But it totally freaked me out. So I picked her up and took back downstairs and Kirk was sleeping on the couch down there and I woke him up and told him what had just happened and then he goes your kidding because I was laying her asleep and she came right up and started sniffing my face, talk about freaking out. He was like she is lucky I didn't kill her. He had gotten up and put her back in the cage (unlocked of course) and she obviously needed something else and went on another mission and found me. Oh, and also last night before we even went to bed, Kirk was watching TV and I was on the computer when I heard him start going 'come here Violet' and she was off and running then also. Then this morning when we were talking about it Owen swears that she was in his bed last night too and he took her back downstairs (but that is up in the air as to if there is any truth to it) So, she really has mastered the 'jump'.

Side note - Cody doesn't bother the rats at all which is a good thing for Violet but she needs to be careful of Mazey because she is not so sure of the rats and we are not sure what she would do if she found Violet out on a mission.

BTW: they are in the cage with doors locked now.