As many of you may have heard: Kevin's Christmas present from me was a beautiful little friend whose name is Ratty, after the river rat in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, which we started reading in preparation for the addition to our family. My friend Cindy, who stood in the middle of the bridesmaids at our wedding and who is starting her doctorate program to be a veterinarian in September this year, sweetly volunteered to take us to her favorite rat store in Burien. We picked her up slightly before Christmas (so that she could join us at the Connally family event in Tacoma), and she has been a lovely little friend ever since.
The idea was that Kevin wanted a dog so bad, he just couldn't possibly hold off until we get back from Japan, but obviously it would be rude to get a dog and then reject it, full aware ahead of time, only a year or so after bringing it in to our home. Besides, every door into our apartment building says: "No Dogs Allowed." However, Miss Ratty is strikingly doglike, more so than it would have been fair to expect. She loves to cuddle and comes when she's called. She licks fingers and sniffs everything. She's even potty-training! We love her very much, and take her with us everywhere we can. She's made trips to Jon's house, and just tonight I took her to Bartell's to rummage for some necessary items, and she cozied down in my sweater, chirping occasionally but always being perfectly well-behaved.
Her coloration is called aguti, which means it looks brown and is made up of red, blond, black, and brown. Like Kevin. Also like Kevin, her belly is white, which we love because it makes her look like a wild animal. She eats whatever we eat, and she loves to hunt around the room for her dinner.

Below are a few photos just because I thought they were cool.... One is a fancy breakfast set with the dishes aunt Tara gave us, and one shows some of the decorations we had up for Christmas. Oh, and Kevin eating that one breakfast.