Emily's rat

"On hot days, I need to have my air conditioner up really high because of Buddy."

The speaker is my friend Emily, who lives in a tiny Thousand Oaks studio apartment with her pet rat-one of only a few pets who would fit in the small living space comfortably.

Emily is a warm and cheerful woman who earns a modest living as a hairdresser and lives alone. When she wanted a pet, she wanted something small but "petable," unlike nervous birds

and slippery goldfish, so she went to a nearby pet store and bought herself a rat.

Unlike many of us in our relatively affluent part of the world, Emily does not live in a palatial- or even semi-palatial-home with yard, pool and luxurious landscaping. You picture Emily as someone living in the crowded brownstones of a big city, yet here she resides among us.

Rats, apparently, are smart, somewhat trainable and perfectly content to stay in their cages for long periods of time. How much a pet store rat differs from the kind we would happily exterminate is something I didn't feel free to ask.

Buddy the rat is now 2 years old. The normal life expectancy for rats is 3, so she's determined to make the little fella's "golden year" as comfortable as possible. When I visit with Emily I

come away with a bittersweet mixture of empathy and admiration. I realize there are many among us who have to make do with limited options in life, including the pets we choose.

Living in an area with expensive surroundings where pedigreed pets are paraded by their

well-to-do owners, I can't help but appreciate Emily's humble, but proud perspective on life.

I thank my friend for helping me open my eyes to the nuances of the world, and I wish Buddy a long and happy life which, according to the odds, may even last four years.