Nov 11th, 2017: Rats

[xoxoxoBruce]

Good authors and reporters can sway public perception and opinion.
So can poets, conmen, preachers and skilled orators.
Personally I think king of the hill is the photographer who can compose that picture that stops you dead
in your tracks, makes you suddenly see clearly a situation that had you muddled or even hadn't considered.
Diane Ozdamar is not one of those photographers.

As far as I can remember I have always loved rats and any rodent people would call "pest". When I first got pet rats, I was thrilled to discover they were so clean, smart and affectionate, very far from the nasty dirty rat myth most people believe in.
Thus, I decided to rescue and foster abandoned and abused rats until I could find them a forever home. This led me to take pictures of them: finding a home to a rat is not an easy task since they suffer from a very bad reputation and I had to make their cute personalities stand out so people would consider adopting them.

Some of the rats you can see here were mine, others were rats I fostered, and some belonged to my friends. Most of these pictures (plus many more not shown here) have been exhibited for the last 5 years at the "Animal Expo" show in Paris, where people can meet a team of animal rights activists and volunteers to get informations about rodents and exotic pets maintenance.

Rats of a feather hang together.

No rat has ever been hurt during the shooting sessions, you can see here how I managed to make them pose: a lot of patience, cuddles and tasty treats.

I’m sorry to hear that, those pampered Rattus vermin she cuddles aren't even close to resembling real rats
and their bubonic fleas which should burn to hell.