Captured rats up for adoption

Rats captured after overrunning a woman's home in Rochester, Wash., are now up for adoption, an area volunteer says.

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RatsPacNW member Hilary Price said her group found more than 100 poisoned rats inside Michele Diller's Rochester home, but 29 captured alive are now in need of good homes, The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.) said Friday.

Price said the rodents, which include 10 babies, would make ideal pets because they are clean and can be trained.

"They're very smart, they're very clean, they can do tricks," she said. "They're like little miniature dogs."

The rats are likely offspring of several rats that escaped into the walls of Diller's home after she brought them home to feed to her pet snakes, the Olympian said.

The escaped rats eventually bred into uncontrollable numbers and began eating the home's electrical wiring while coating its floors with feces and urine.