No advice, just good luck purrs.

We have had them at the same time, but we didn't trust the cats alone
with a rat.

One of the few times we made a mistake was when we left the lid off
the aquarium the rat lived in when Muriel was in the room.  She jumped
into it, ignored the rat, munched her way through its food and jumped
out again before we could intervene.

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Jack Campin:  11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
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no advice but best wishes, Lee

Well gosh. I guess it'll take you mind off of things!!! Good luck and keep
us posted. Sounds a little nerve wracking to me :D

My daughter has done it.  Right now she has a rat and two cats.  Space isn't
as much trouble as time.  She is gone a lot.

Jo

Purrs that the cats don't invite the rat to (be) lunch.  Best wishes.  
MLB

I think it depends upon the individual cats, but I'd suggest
the rat resign itself to being securely caged at all times -
simply for its own self-preservation!

I'm sure Furbie will tell you his/her name.  We once acquired a kitten
(invited in by one of our cats) that I wanted to name Half Pint.  I had
several reasons for this.  My late husband was a rather large man who sang
Barbershop.  He belonged to a quartet with three other large men.  They
called their quartet the Half Ton of Harmony.  Herbie purred up a storm.  I
have always referred to purring as singing, so with a tiny kitten who sang a
lot, it wasn't a great stretch to come up with Half Pint of Harmony, or Half
Pint for short.  My husband and kids didn't like that name, but didn't come
up with anything better.   I usually ended up being the one to come up with
names for our pets.  Anyway, one night Half Pint was snuggling up against my
head and purring like crazy.  I said, "Oh, you little love bug!" and
immediately realized that his name was Herbie.

Joy

In previous life (or so it seems) I had two budgies (parakeets) and Shmogg.
The first encounter with the budgies Shmogg had as a kitten was not a good
one for him, the big blue parakeet swooped head first at him, sqawking loud
and threatening squawks, and only missed colliding with Shmogg head-on by a
most amazing mid-flight veer at the very last second. Shmogg was scared
witless of both the budgies from that point on, and never bothered either of
them till the day they went to Rainbow Bridge.

I was so comfortable in their safety, I rarely ever had them in their cage,
to the point I had forgotten about cats & birds and hte natural way of
things when I catsat a friend's cat. Within an hour, friend's cat had
managed to catch the big blue budgie. Thankfully no harm was done, but it
reminded me of just how trustworthy Shmogg was around them. I was also
grateful it was the big blue budgie - she was as tough as old nails. The
little yellow budgie probably would have died of fright.

My advice to you would be to make the first encounter your cats have with
the rat a negative one (a water squirt,a loud "no" ?), so that they are
discouraged from bothering the rat. Of course, if they are already
profecient hunters, you may be working uphill, but if they are lazy
housecats like Shmogg, you might be in luck.

Yowie

I love rats!! I have 9 of my own (Crackers, Lilly, Tigger, Ginger,
Puggles, Bunny, Zac, Pickles & Chutney). I hate to admit it, but rats
are now my favourite animals whilst cats play a close 2nd.

I keep my rats well away from the cats. My rats freak out at the smell
of cats, and the risk of cats scratching little eyes and noses. Bad and
risky mix. I would never let the cats come in the same room as the rat,
the smell alone could get the rat stressed, for obvious reasons. Plus a
rat could inflict a nasty bite on the cats. It's also not a good idea
to house the rat in a tank (or something similar) as the smell of urine
builds up fast and causes respiratory problems (which rats are very
prone to). Plus they don't get to smell their environment and there
would be less noise, which would be depressing and claustrophobic.

I would recommend that you have a room that is cat free for the rat and
be ultra, ultra careful about keeping doors shut. To be sure, I
personally would have two doors shut that separate the cats from the
rats (in my case it was to separate the dog from the house rabbits).

We allow our rats to have free range of the bedroom or the study for
hours on end. Any chance you can get Mickey a buddy or two, as rats are
social creatures. If you go down this path read up on how to introduce
rats before getting any new additions. A good rat website is
http://www.dapper.com.au/, and there will be many links from there.

Have fun with ratty.

Dewi.

Congrats on your new addition!
Best wishes and lots of purrs for you, kili,
Polonca and Soncek