Rattie is a rat on a mission. Dragging the string—attached to a cluster of slender cables—through a maze of pipes and crawl spaces inside public-school walls, she is helping connect California classrooms to the Internet. In the past 18 months, the 2½-year-old female has wired eight elementary schools in Solano County and San Francisco, guided by trainer Judy Reavis, who directs her by tapping walls or luring her with strategically placed dry cat food.
Reavis, 44, a vice president of Hermes Systems Inc., a technology company in Benicia, Calif., decided to try it herself last year after an acquaintance had failed to train a rat to run wiring. Reavis acquired Rattie, a former control rat in laboratory experiments, and, drawing from her experience as a biophysicist who worked with lab rats, taught her to run through conduit pipes and introduced her to chicken wire, fiberglass and other materials she might encounter behind a school wall.
Before Rattie (her real name is Judy's Rat, but friends call her Rattie), human volunteers—mothers, mostly—had to squeeze into hard-to-reach spaces to connect school computers to the Internet. Rattie, says Reavis, does the job better—and more quickly. "A rat," she says, "is going to find the straightest path."
And there's a bonus. The kids love having a rodent electrician on the premises, and Rattie seems happy too. "She loves to do this kind of thing," says Reavis. "She's soused to the kids; she's very personable. I really got lucky with this rat."
The problem with rats, regardless of how personable or talented they may be, is that they seldom live past three years. But Reavis is ready for Rattie's last run: She's got a replacement rat named Rattie Jr. waiting in the wings. Not that she won't miss Rattie. "She's only a rat," says Reavis, "but she's a very special rat."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
