GOOD NEWS FOR A PAMPERED RAT

Have you ever had a “spa” pedicure? It sounds much more elegant than it really is, but it means sitting in a cushy reclining chair that vibrates and has rollers giving your back a good Rolfing while you are having your feet gussied up. If you don't want to pay for the fancy pedicure, the other option is sitting in a swiveling secretary-type chair and crimping your knees up so your feet will fit on a little stool in front of the pedicurist, which for an old lady can be awfully uncomfortable. Anyway, lying on a vibrating chair is certainly more my style.

So imagine my surprise the day I opened the newspaper and found a story on Page One about a new “Pet Depot” in La Verne, accompanied by a big photo showing a white rat lying on her back, feet extended, with a groomer nipping at her toenails. The white rat named Jewel got the full treatment, the article said. Her body was sprayed with a waterless shampoo and then rubbed down with a flea and mite removal product. The pedicurist says trimming their nails is the most difficult part of the rat’s standing monthly appointment. “They have very small feet,” she says by way of clarification. She also says the rat smells good when she goes home.

I also should clarify that the rat was not in a vibrating chair but instead was lying on her back in her owner’s hands. The grooming session is a bargain at $10.

At the time I hoped that Associated Press would pick up this story and that some of the TV stations would find it worthy of a few minutes of discussion by the talking heads. I laughed myself silly at the pictures that accompanied the article, though the subject itself, even without photos, was worthy of a huge guffaw. I never saw the story anywhere else, so I guess AP thought it was too frivolous for today's intense world. In trying to find a copy of the rat picture on the internet, I found pictures of fish performing pedicure duties in a tank of water containing the toes of a young woman (toes hooked on to her leg, of course.) But no rat having its "day at the spa."

From time to time I think about finding a part time job but as yet haven’t found anything that tickled my fancy. The article says that no special education is needed for becoming a rat pedicurist but that it is learned from on-the-job training. So this is something I just might think about – rodent pedicurist might be an interesting and profitable thing to do in my waning years.