Hello, Glad you went ahead and got your rat. I've had six altogether, though none currently, and they beat the heck out of hamsters, gerbils, and lots of those other brain damaged small pets. :) I just wanted to warn you that heavy books on a rat aquarium might not be a good idea. We tried that years ago, and ended up have big pieces of the books gnawed off. Also, she might be able to move them herself, without help from cat or ferret. I've found a rat kept in an aquarium loves to jump up and sit on the edge and watch the world go by. Remember the basic maxim of rat/ferret ownership. Rats go up, ferrets go down. :) I recommend if you can afford it to put fish in your aquarium and buy a small cage for the rat. The ventilation is good for them. You can also teach them the trick I taught my rats years ago. Whenever I walked into the room, they ran to the bars, stuck one arm through and waved a greeting at me. They are a lot easier to train than ferrets. *sigh* Good luck with the pets. I'm sure they'll get along just fine. Unless your cat is one tough SOB, he probably won't be able to kill a full-grown rat. But you don't want him to try, of course. You seem to be going about it pretty sensibly. -Catherine Shaffer [Posted in FML issue 1614]