[HPforGrownups] Of Rats and Ron

[Susanne]

No: HPFGUIDX 48544



Hi,

Thursday, December 19, 2002, 8:29:33 AM, anakinbester wrote:

> Why does everyone, especially Ron, pick Scabbers up by his tail!
> That's something I knew before I even owned a rat! you do _not_ pick 
> them up by their tails. EVER! Except in the direst of emergencies. 

> I can't imagine that JKR did not know this, though maybe she didn't. 
> If she did know that, though, it's an interesting point on Ron's 
> character that he does abuse Scabbers like this. (I'm sure it's not 
> meant to be mean, I'm not saying this)

I tend to think that JKR is just repeating what many people
still perceive as the best way to handle a rodent.

We've had rodents as pets for many years now, and we thought
it would be easy to find good homes for some of the
offspring (we had one accidental breeding pair of gerbils, once).

After seeing many of our daughter's friends trying to handle
them, hearing them talk about pets in general, and hearing
the parents opinions, we kept them all ourselves!

Holding a rat/mouse/gerbil by the tail is still the
stereotypical way many people think is the right way, and
seeing how JKR chose the rat as animagi form for PP makes me
think she doesn't see rats as the lovely pets they
*can* be <g>.

Many pet store workers also practice this way of picking up
mice/rats and pass it on to the future owners.

And concerning PP/Scabbers fighting Ron to get away, I think
that's also JKR not knowing how much it hurts to be bitten
by a rat (or maybe we'll find out later that PP will save
Ron, because he grew to love him, though he didn't seem very
concerning when he cursed him during his escape).

Harry also pulls Crookshanks out by the end of his tail,
when he tries to sneak into the boys dorm, instead of
grabbing him the correct way.

Animals seem to serve as comic relief a bit in HP, too,
looking at Errol and Pigwidgeon, for example.

-- 
Best regards,
 Susanne                           mailto:siskiou at earthlink.net