Scabbers/Wormtail: What Kind of Rat Am I?

[Charmian]

No: HPFGUIDX 9211

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Caius Marcius" <coriolan at w...> 
wrote:
<snip>
> Thanks for clarifying that, Rita: though I must say, I find the 
idea 
> of Ron cuddling for several years with a *Mus rattus* infinitely 
more 
> unsettling than Harry's Parselmouth talents (but then, I always 
kept 
> snakes as a kid, and I would loved to be able to converse with 
them).
> 
> 
<snip>

Are white lab rats and wild rats different species, out of 
curiousity? They haven't been domesticated for anywhere near the same 
amount of time as dogs or cats or horses, so I'm not sure they would 
be. I always wondered what purpose Scabbers was supposed to have, as 
rats don't deliver the post. I wonder how Pettigrew ended up with 
Ron's family anyway. Did he just sneak into a pet shop one day? Did 
Percy find him in a garbage can somewhere?

Charmian