Pets (was: Scabbers/Wormtail: What Kind of Rat Am I?

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 9217

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, " Charmian" <sashibuya at h...> wrote:

> I always wondered what purpose Scabbers was supposed to have, as 
> rats don't deliver the post.

Trevor the Toad doesn't deliver the post either. In fact, cats other 
than Crookshanks don't deliver the post  -- and a cat OR a toad OR an 
owl was what students were allowed to bring. I wonder whether they're 
supposed to be familiars in some advanced magic class that HP isn't 
old enough for yet, or just pets? 

First Percy and then Ron had a rat, which is not on that list, but a 
rat who can stay in a pocket or bookbag is likely to cause less 
trouble than a cat -- perhaps could be kept secretly even at a school 
which didn't allow pets. 

But since Weasleys bent that rule but Lavender Brown left her beloved 
bunny at home (to be eaten by a fox), I figure that Lavender took the 
statement on her Hogwarts letter altogether too literally, which is 
another thing that makes me suspect she is Muggle-born. She could 
have brought her bunny with her to school, and if anyone complained, 
she could have said he was a funny looking cat. 

My college had a silly rule about students could keep cats in the 
dorms, upon payment of a $5 registration fee per cat, which gave you 
a big red plastic tag to attach to your cat's collar to show that he 
was legal, but it was against the rules to keep dogs in the dorms.

In my dorm, a girl from Hong Kong named Miao Chang (I always remember 
that name because Miao is pronounced 'meow') had a Pekinese dog 
smaller than most of the cats, whom she didn't bother to register at 
all.

A girl in the dorm next door had a Big Terrier Mutt named Ladvy, who 
was registered as a cat. Mary Pat (Mary Patterson MacPherson, then 
Dean of the Undergraduate College, later President), who was a dog 
lover and had a Great Pyrenee named Hume whose bark made the earth 
shake) always patted Ladvy on the head and said 'Nice kitty' whenever 
she saw him.