In 2003 I began building an enormous duplex bunny hutch; halfway through this project, the two male rabbits in question stopped fighting and became — inexplicably — good friends, necessitating a pause in construction for several months while I reconsidered separating the bunnies. Meanwhile, a new resident moved in, furnishing the pieces of the gigantic structure with everything but our kitchen sink.
Packrats truly are a pest — and will chew through EVERYTHING in their path — but their exceptional cuteness factor remains exponentially tweaked by the bling they fling. Here is this flamboyant packrat’s inventory, photographed after I live-trapped and relocated it to Catalina State Park (complete with a ‘starter food pack’) … Over the years, I was the packrat community’s automatic realtor.