In college, I had two best friends: Mario and Luis. We had finished the second semester in psychology and were going to go to labs for the first time.
We looked so cool with our doctor's robes and our note pads (nothing electronic in those times, they were real paper note pads).
We were kind of nervous about probably having to experiment with those little white mice that had red eyes.
One thing that my friends and I had in common was that we hated the mice's tails... oh, yes... the tails are something that disgusted us, I don't know why, maybe because they look like large worms.
From the lab's door, we saw at the back of the room some plastic transparent boxes, bigger than shoe boxes and there seemed to be large animals in them, so Mario, Luis and I felt a relief that we were going to experiment with rabbits instead of the little white mice.
Our professor came into the lab and asked us to get in.
We were stationed in little cubicles that were going to be our own experimental little labs for each team. We were separated in teams of 3 or 4 students each.
There were some apparatuses that we didn't identified, later on we found out that one was a scale, it was a weird scale, it was like a metal tortilla's dish with a lid over it, a base that had numbers and an arrow. Also a "Skinner box" which is a box with a series of things like a bell, food dispenser, mirror, etc. where we were supposed to put the pet in.
The teacher told us that we needed to go and take each of our teams a box containing an animal for our experiments.
Exited we went... yes, very exited to get our little pet and the whole class almost fainted when they approached the boxes and we found out they were giant rats!!!!... Oh, rats!
Nobody had ever seen such big rats before, they looked like bunnies, they were huge.
My two male friends hold me by the arms and pulled me aside telling me that no way they were going to touch that disgusting animal.
The box had a lid, so I took the box to our cubicle and I was shaking.,. I was terrified by the huge rat and didn't know if my legs were going to hold me until I reached the table to put it on.
Suddenly another scared student dropped the box and a white and black rat escaped in panic... it looked like a little cow. We all jumped on our tables and some girls yelled.
The doctor who was our teacher, talked loud at us with anger, saying that we were studying for being professionals and that the spectacle we were giving was embarrassing him, that we needed to jump down the tables, catch the rat and take it to its original box.
Some VERY brave guy finally did it. We were all in shock.
Luis and Mario told me that if I didn't handle the rat, they were going to quit school, no kidding. They were serious. They begged me to do it and they said that they would take the notes and will do all the necessary things except touching the rat.
I was pale... my heart was beating hard, my hands were sweating... my legs were shaking.
The rat terrorized me.
As it was a "see through" box, I knelt down in front of the rat's face and looked at it... I noticed how nervous it was and I felt sorry.
I thought that if the rat looked horrible to me, I had to look horrible to the rat as well. After all, if the rat was huge, I was a giant compared to it. He was caged, totally helpless, not knowing what was going to happen to him.... I could kill him so easily if I wanted... and there he was not knowing his future, incapable of defending himself.
I saw his heart palpitations, the nervousness, the trembling in him... all of the sudden I understood that the only ugly thing in the rat was its gigantic thick tail, yes, that horrible tail, but I wondered... what could the rat see in me that makes him think it's disgusting?
I stared at the rat for a while trying to control my fear to touch it.
The teacher had told us that the rats didn't see well, that their whiskers were their sensors, and if we hold them from the back, they could turn their faces, feel us with their whiskers and and could bite us. That we needed to hold them from underneath.
To my dismay, our rat was a male and had testicles of the same size as a real nut... it was disgusting to death.
Finally after a time of trying to understand the fear of the little (huge) one, I dared to hold him as the teacher told us and put the rat in the scale with the lid on.
We measured how much it weighted and then I put it in the Skinner box. We made some experiments feeding the rat and sounding the bell every time the food was coming to it.
The professor had told us that we were going to be the only ones who fed our rats and that the rats would be without food during the weekend.
I felt so sorry for the rat that I named it: "Gorgonio", I decorated his cage with little paintings I painted of rat faces, like if they were his family.
Every day I handled the rat despite the horror I had for his tale and testicles. (of course I wore plastic globes) but anyway...
On the weekends I was in bed thinking of the poor Gorgonio not having food.
I got a bond with the huge rat... I talked to it and sang to it a little to make it calmer... the rat recognized me and felt fine.
The semester was over, we moved on... I never knew what happened to Gorgonio and I thought of him often.
The lesson I learned here, was that I could be terrified of some animal because it looks are disgusting to me, but putting my mind in understanding it, I can deal with my fears and I can do a lot better.
Thanks Gorgonio for teaching me that valuable lesson.
