My Ikea Rat

About five years ago I have developed certain feelings towards Ikea rat. You know, this stuffed soft toy they had for 100 rubles (the price is higher now). I saw it on one of our rare trips to the mall and it got me right there. Since then every trip to Ikea ended with me buying a rat. Don’t worry – nothing happened to the previous ones.

My brother suggested we buy as many of these rats as we needed for making a bed of them to sleep at night. But we did not. One day he came from Ikea with 15 soft toy balls of different colors and that was the end for this dream-bed.

I stayed loyal to the rats. My heart was hooked when I glanced on them, our eyes met and I could not help grabbing my rats and hugging them till the happiness filled me (and supposedly them, too).

I had never had guts to buy a lot of rats at once: one or two each time – to put in a car or in a new place for living, or as a present to a friend or just to hug on the ride home. I had different reasons – or excuses.

I had a time in my life I felt I should try to reach out for people who were fans of the rat, too. I thought that I could not be the only one who felt this affection for Ikea and its rats. So I set a fan blog on one of the national sites on the Internet. I had two followers at the highest peak of its popularity. I put Ikea rats in every car I could – and soon I reaped what I sowed – neighbors thought it was a nice idea and put Ikea rats in their cars, too. I even started posting some pictures of “Ikea rat in a car – send your photos!” in the blog. Recently this blog was removed due to the lack of activity.

I still have an Ikea rat in my car. And so do some of my parents’ and my own neighbors.

Ikea rat in my car saw a lot: two cars I drove, my boyfriends and friends and people who hitchhiked; she saw me in all kind of states; heard me singing, laughing and crying; it got pinkish in the sun, while the original color was light-brown. I took her to some lectures and classes, I washed her once when she fell in the dirt. She visited houses of my friends and lovers. Last Saturday night she spent at my friend’s place – she was on her own, without me – and I was worried. But she turned out ok, she was wearing a pretty scarf when she came back to the car in the morning the next day. Now she’s just fabulous.

I have four more rats at my place and one beside my bed at parents’ place. My white rat wears a tiny black hat and looks gorgeous. She is resting on the computer sound system. Black one is in the other room on the black sofa. And two brownish rats are on the shelf, one lies on the top of it, while the other is hanging on the tail, which is clipped to the tail of the one on the top. They change places from time to time.

I though it was very important to enlighten you with this story. Thank you very much for reading.