kuzko and kronk @emperorsofmischief 5/14 9:00 pm
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00:00Left.
00:02Good boy!
00:04We are Kendall and Shawn, and this is Cusco and Kronk's story for GeoBeats.
00:08We had listened to this podcast
00:10that caused us to consider rats as companion animals,
00:13even though we never had before.
00:16So we walked into Vancouver Animal Services Shelter
00:19at the same time Cusco and Kronk were there.
00:21They'd come from not a very good home,
00:23but kind of a bad situation.
00:25Boy!
00:27Wow, he's amazing!
00:29We had Kronk on our shoulder just kind of sniffing us, checking us out.
00:31We were like, um, we had no idea how to handle them, right?
00:34We actually were going to sleep on it,
00:36but we only drove like a block away before we turned around
00:38and were like, I think these guys are meant to be with us.
00:41We knew from that moment on that we just wanted to
00:43give them the fullest, most interesting, happy, healthy lives that we could.
00:47Oh my gosh, Kronk!
00:51Shawn, look at Cusco!
00:52My dad made this car.
00:54It was a surprise to us that he was even working on it.
00:57Best dad in the world!
00:58We had learned about researchers teaching rats to drive tiny cars
01:03to see how enriched environments improved their lives.
01:05And I had sent information about this study to my dad,
01:07who is a tinkerer, loves working with robotics.
01:10He took this idea and turned it into
01:13these adorable, customized cars for our rats.
01:16The car is not operated using a remote control.
01:19It has three pedals, and the center one accelerates the vehicle,
01:22the left one turns it to the left,
01:24and the right one turns it to the right.
01:25Cusco!
01:26During trial and error, they realized that they could
01:28manipulate the vehicle by using those pedals
01:31in order to pull up to where we were holding a treat.
01:34I did not think they were going to be able to learn this,
01:36so I've been amazed by their capacity.
01:38Cusco was, to begin with, a better driver.
01:41He's more logical in his way of finding the treat.
01:44Good job!
01:46But Kronk never gives up.
01:47Left.
01:48His motivation to get the food definitely carries him.
01:51Good boy!
01:52I really wanted at some point to have them do a driver's ed course
01:55where they have to move around pylons
01:57and move from point A to point B through a maze to get to the treats.
02:01Kronk is very emotional.
02:02He wears his heart on his sleeve.
02:04So good.
02:07I love you.
02:09When we come home, he'll run up your arm to your shoulder,
02:12and he'll give you little kisses like,
02:13I'm glad you're home.
02:14He's very much like a little dog.
02:16It feels like the same unconditional love that you would get
02:18from, like, a dog or a cat.
02:20The rats have something called bruxing,
02:22that it's kind of like a purr.
02:23It's actually when they chatter their teeth,
02:25which is something they do when they're content.
02:26And when they do that enthusiastically,
02:28they also do something called boggling,
02:29which is where their eyes, like, kind of boggle out of their sockets a bit.
02:33Cusco and Kronk, they're certainly bonded.
02:35So cute!
02:37They sleep in the same little tree chunk,
02:39and they're all curled up.
02:40Rats, they get lonely and depressed if they're not with their family.
02:46Turn all the way around.
02:49The group of rats is called a mischief,
02:50which I think is very cute and very appropriate
02:53to the kind of things they like to get up to.
02:55With every mischief of rats, there is a hierarchy.
02:57And so with our mischief, Kronk is the alpha,
03:00and so he's the food provider,
03:02whereas Cusco is the forager.
03:04Flawless!
03:05I will spend the rest of their lives
03:07trying to make them as happy as possible.
03:09Look at that long, beautiful tail.
03:11We are both very bonded with our rats,
03:13but I feel like Kendall would lay down her life for the rats.