I'm just curious how everyone here learned about rattys and what was the deciding factor?

My story is...I had always been partial to really large dogs, or really small dogs (ok...and dogs in between) LOL. When I our son turned 1 and started walking, he started to take an interest in our two very large dogs (90# each), so we decided that we should look for a very small, low maintenance, good all around dog.

A friend recommended a ratty and told me about the two types. I was really impressed by how they earned their name and did all sorts of research.  Before the week was up, we had our puppy picked out. It's been Ratty-love since *sigh*

It must have been fate!! I didnt know anything about rat-terriers, and a friend of a friend was trying to find good homes for her litter, and Im a sucker when it comes to cute puppies!!! Anyways, she seems really sweet and playful, I picked a good breed!

We had a friend (an older gentleman) that raised Rat terriers, but loved each and every one of them SO MUCH that he could never part with any of them, and he ended up having about 20 of them on his farm.  We thought they were the funniest and smartest little dogs!  I've always had Doberman Pinschers, but have little dogs, too.  Two years ago, right before my wife's birthday, she drove past a house here in town that had a sign in the yard 'Rat Terrier Puppies for sale'---the man only had 2 left-- a male and a female, and Barb wanted this little female puppy SO BAD for her birthday.  My married daughter's birthday was close to the same time, so we bought both ratties, kept the female (Lucy) and gave my daughter the male (Piston).  They still get to visit with each other a lot.  And my Dobie, Darmok,  thought we had given her the best thing in the world----a little sister!

 It was an accident for me.  In fall of 2004 my friend (who owns the stable where I keep my horse) found a tiny puppy wandering down a road.  She stopped and the pup ran to her.  The puppy was tiny, had worms and fleas, was dehydrated and starving.  She also had horrible scars on her head and eye, which was blind and protruding.  My friend took her home and cleaned her up, fed her, etc.  Two days later I went out to ride my horse and saw this little pup chasing a huge chicken. I scooped her up and she gave me kisses...Deb asked if I wanted her because she already had several dogs and Mitzy wasn't safe running around the horses.  Without even stopping to think I said "yes".  We thought she was a JRT mixed with Chi...we'd never heard of rat terriers.

A co-worker clued me into rat terriers and showed me pics.  I found this website and posted pics of Mitzy and asked opinions.  Also, by everyone's description of their rattie's personality I could tell she was much like that.  I had always had big dogs before but I loved this little girl the second I saw saw her with Deb. 

In fact, I love her so much I decided to get another....so the next spring we found a breeder and got Mayfly!

PS: for all the newbies, Mitzy does have only 1 eye.  The injured eye had to be removed when she was spayed.  She does just fine with only 1 though!  And yes, our newest addition Skipper also has one eye....he lost it in a fight with another dog before landing at a shelter.

Thank you all for sharing! What wonderful stories. I hate to generalize, but it seems that ratty owners are among some of the nicest people I've met, either in person or via the Internet.

My getting Caesar was fate~~ we had lost our dachshund April of '05. That was the hardest time for us... ( she was given to us by friends  in the Air Force that were moving away and could only take 2 dogs with them,they had 3. He didn't want to give up his hunting dog & she had a poodle that was hers for 8 years, so we got Reba who was 2 yrs.)  After she went ot doggie heaven we knew we needed another dog in our family but werer taking time to find the right one...2 months later we went looking at dogs at our shelter but with no luck!! It was a first come first serve. We picked out 3 dogs to look at but by the time it was our turn they were already being adopted. The last one being a Rattie. I knew nothing about them just thought she was adorable...however the other family took her. We couldn't look at any other dogs there because they had notes by them saying "no children under 10 yrs." My youngest daughter at that time was 8 yrs. old. So after being there over 2 hours we left with No dog to love. The children were pretty upset, so we went to one more place called Tullys Kennels. They had so many puppies there, (they all seemed to be well cared for) we walked in and there he was, all by himself in a cage. I asked if we could see him and we never let him go!!  Caesar came into our lives June 9th 2005.

So of course when my husband said we could get Caesar a sister I had to have another Rattie!! We went back to Tullys Kennels and knew she was the one for us. Julia's "Gotcha day" is April 7 2007. Since getting Caesar and Julia I've looked up everything I could find out about Ratties and was so happy to have found this site. I've learned so much about their breed and fell in love not only with my babies but all ratties!!

I would have to agree!!! 

Ever since my husband and I married we have had dogs.  Always large dogs..except for one Springer Spaniel..who was dropped off and I got hubby to let me keep her.  We have had Saints, Newfs, Old English, etc.

My husband has had Parkinson's for 24 years and he has a wonderful Lab service dog Reggie.  We have also our second rescue OE Barkley.

We feed the birds and have a rodent problem.  We also live on a farm that has been in my husbands family since 1855.  So with the barns and fields there are a lot of vermin around here.  I was doing some looking on the internet and saw that Rat Terriers were good dogs to have for that problem. Hubby finally agreed...he always told me "no little dogs".  Anyway I looked and then my hubby took a bad fall down our cellar stair and fractured his neck.  He was in the hospital for a month...

So to make a long story short...my son farms the land now...no more cows.  He has some friends that they help each other and one brought his dog with him.  He said she was about ready to have pups and they were Ratties.  She fell into my lap. He was giving them away.  She was born last July 18 and we got her just before she turned 5 weeks old.  Eventually I want another one!!!

I didn't.  A Rattie chose me!  Saw her at the pet store and she gave me that look and pawed at the glass and that was IT!

Colleen, what a cutie you have! I just want to kiss her and hug her!