Torro is living his best life.

The former lab rat, a snowy white albino with red eyes, is blossoming in the hands of self-proclaimed rat lover Nicole Ochart. She holds the healthy-looking, active guy, whose pink-colored leg bears a tattoo that once identified him.

“I think I need to have him,” she tells Florence Hicks-Moore, founder of Colorado Springs rat rescue Coloratto.

Hicks-Moore wants to hold off for now, as she’d like to give somebody else a chance to adopt Torro, who passes her kid-friendly test by being amenable to a hand smush. Rats are friendlier with kids than guinea pigs, she says.

“They’re like hi, entertain me,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s morning, afternoon, night, they love to be held and love to have interaction. I always try to make sure I pick the right home. I have a way of testing if they can go to kids or not. If I can flip him on the back and squish him and he doesn’t do anything, because that’s what kids do.”

This isn’t Ochart’s first rat rodeo; she’s been a Coloratto foster for almost a year, after adopting her first set of rats from the rescue for her 14-year-old daughter, who has autism.

“She always wanted rats, which was super creepy for me,” Ochart said. “For Christmas I got her a few rats and I’m the one who fell in love with them. It has taught her a lot of responsibility. When she’s overwhelmed and having a hard time that’s usually when she’ll go over and play with them and hold them. They calm her down. They’re like pocket puppies, just in rat form.”

Ochart’s 20 rats live in three strategically placed cages throughout her home. Visitors will first notice the elaborate multilevel structure full of the larger-sized males straight away, as about half a dozen boys live in the far corner of the living room. Among them is Scabbers, a 2 1/2-year-old male who recently lost his mate and seemed close to checking out of the rat race for that big slice of cheese in the sky until Ochart adopted four rat babies from Hicks-Moore.

“It changed everything about him,” she said. “All those boys I got from her were piled on top of him and keeping him going.”

She’s not lying. One glance in the cage, with its hammocks, cozy spots, toys and litter box, and it’s clear Scabbers is in his resurrection era.

This doesn’t surprise Hicks-Moore, who estimates she’s now about 8,000 rats deep in the rescue she started in 2017. It now operates almost as a one-stop shop, where people can surrender and adopt rats, and also receive medical advice and attention from Hicks-Moore, who guesses she’s seen all the health issues and helps advise people. And if the little critters need surgery, she has a vet who knows their rat stuff and does it on the cheap. Find the rescue online at facebook.com/Colorattorescue.

“The depression is real. They are so empathetic,” she said. “I’ve had rats, when their hind legs weren’t working anymore, other rats would carry their food to the old ones and help them groom.”

To avoid creating a rat militia, Ochart has located her two cages of female rats around the corner from the boys, so love affairs can’t take root and potentially produce dozens of babies. The girls live in bespoke rat playgrounds alongside several other cages holding a few bearded dragons, Ochart’s other passion. She’s starting a dragon rescue with the help of Hicks-Moore.

Some of the girl rats scamper about their roosts, hopeful the humans have brought snacks. Others chill in hammocks, only their wriggling snouts and whiskers visible. A naked dumbo rat named Dobby, with her unusually large ears on the sides of her head, instead of the top, presents a singular petting experience.

“It’s just how sweet and gentle they were,” Ochart said on changing her mind about rats. “And the way when I walked by they would just grab the bars and their little noses were saying can I have love? And I have always had such kind and sweet and gentle rats that want all the attention. And they’re fun to watch.”

Hicks-Moore also was not a member of the rat pack before starting her rescue. Her dog had just died and she went to the pet store hoping to find a ferret to love. Instead, the shop employee plopped a rat on her shoulder.

“One turned into two,” she said. “I couldn’t go to Petco anymore because I came home with another one. In the end, I had 13 and realized vets don’t know how to treat them, so I turned into an expert and had a massive rat page on Facebook that started referring people to me when rats had medical issues. And that’s how I turned into a rescue.”

And that’s how Cade Lang turned his former fifth grade classroom at Evans Elementary into a rat dynasty. After Hicks-Moore’s son, who was Lang’s student, told his teacher about his mom’s rescue, one to three rats found themselves spending the school year in a classroom surrounded by kids for the past five years. And every year, except for one, the rats got adopted by students’ families.

“I would liken it to a therapy animal,” Lang said. “When kids would come in you could tell when they were in a bad place. Every time they’d go to the rats and pick one up and go sit down and you could see their troubles melt away.”

He compares holding a rat to holding its archnemesis — a kitten.

“A kitten’s going to put their little claws in you because they’re going to want to climb and figure things out,” he said. “You get used to their little claws right away.”

Having the rats in his classroom aligned with the movement method program Lang taught.

“One of its core components is about bringing calmness to the central nervous system,” he said. “Therapy animals are just a common sense thing we see in neuroscience that work really well, but within a school district it’s challenging to get animals, even a therapy dog, what with allergies. Rats being pretty hypoallergenic, there’s your in in bringing animals and pets into your classroom.”

Be forewarned: Rat love is fleeting. Rats are considered seniors at 2 years old.

“It sucks because they’re so smart but have such a short life,” said Duncan Duncan, another rat lover. “I guess it’s kind of a good thing because when you’re adopting a dog you don’t know where your life will be in 10 years. You hope it’s suitable for a dog. But in my lifespan of two years I can remain a good home for a rat.”

Hicks-Moore, who would love to partner again with schools, only deals in surrendered rats, those who come from labs and feeder bins, where the rats that snakes reject as food wind up. Or somebody has put together a male and female and now there are progeny to care for. The rescue only accepts fancy rats (Rattus norvegicus domestica), the domesticated form of Rattus norvegicus, the wild rat. She refers the wild rats to Rocky Mountain WildHeart rescue and rehabilitation, just in case they’re carrying disease that might affect her population.

And sure, a rat could bite, just like a dog or cat you adopt from a rescue, but Lang never had a single issue in his classroom.

“Everybody worries about them biting,” he said. “I’ve never had a kid or parent bring up an issue of any sort. They’ve always been amazing. When they’re not being held they find their little hammocks and little beds. And when the kids want them, they are woken up and instantly climbing on the kids.”

Contact the writer: 636-0270