What person doesn't talk to their pets, at least sometimes? According to Canadian business consultant and writer Stephen Holton, if there's ever a best time to talk to a pet rat, it probably the early morning, pre-coffee hours.

Mr. Holton has recorded many bleary-hour conversations with his pet fancy rats, Hector, Newton, Pops and Jack in a new book called 'Rat Tales ? Insomnia Inspired Pet Tales'.

Rat Tales is a funny, and touching book that draws a clear picture of four eccentric little rats and the man who cares for them. It also has lots of cute pictures of rats hanging out.

Mr. Holton lives in Montreal, Canada, but spent several months working in Bermuda as a consultant to a local bank. His company, Small-c Consulting specialises in project management, training and coaching services, among other things.

The Bookworm Beat recently spoke to him via telephone.

"My interest in rats started because I had a friend who ran a local shelter and I ended up being volunteered to take care of her rats when she went away," said Mr. Holton. "The three rats had been abandoned in an apartment and were very sick."

To learn more about their care, Mr. Holton went onto an online, ratty news group, and began posting questions, updates on the rats, and little dialogues between himself and his charges.

"At first I hadn't know much at all about rats," said Mr. Holton. "We did a little bit of reading, and had conversations with the lady at the shelter. We joined the rats newsletter. You hear stories. We were quite new to it."

Unfortunately, because of their previous neglect these rats died. Mr. Holton's partner, however, was interested in owning rats, so in the end, they decided to get another one.

"We found you couldn't get isolated rats," said Mr. Holton. "You shouldn't, because they are quite social. So we got two, Hector and Newton. After we had them for awhile we found two more in foster care. At first we only intended to take one more, but the other one was so friendly, so we took them both."

While the book is funny, for the most part, it is also quite touching, and Mr. Holton's four rats all died within a short time of one another. Rats only have a short life span.

"They were all around the same age," said Mr. Holton. "To some degree whatever made the first one or two sick probably got caught by the others. They only live between two or three years, anyway."

He said that although rats sometimes have a bad reputation in the non-ratty community, they make great pets.

"They are surprisingly affectionate," he said. "I wasn't expecting that. They have distinct personalities. Some advantages to having rats as pets is that they are small animals. They don't need a lot of space. You don't need to let them run around loose, although they do need exercise. They like to bite things and poop so you have to watch them. They don't live a long time so it is not a long commitment. They don't bite much. They are much less bitey than say a hamster. Other than that, they really are wonderful pets. People find them grotesque, but they are rather comical."

Mr. Holton said a fancy rat is less prone to disease than a feral rat because it has been raised in a healthy environment, and they are generally friendlier, because they have been socialised and hand-raised.

Mr. Holton's on-line dialogues with his pets were enjoyed by many other people in the ratty community, and he received frequent requests for more stories, so he decided to compile his on-line writing into a book. Part of the proceeds go to The Small Victories Rodent Rescue, in Montreal.

"Basically, The Small Victories Rodent Rescue, is a privately-owned, small animal shelter and sometimes treatment facility," he said. "It was run by Jane Sorensen. She had been helping a lot of different small animals. When it comes to rats and mice and other small animals, a lot of animal shelters don't really know how to care for them.

"There are a lot of subtleties with the care of rats that a lot of more commercial shelters don't really know. If you don't do certain things, it can lead to a lot of trouble."

Mr. Holton and his family have not yet adopted more rats, since his pets died. He is busy with travel, and a new baby. The Holtons do plan to get more rats though, when things calm down. He is also working on another, more serious book.

"I thought putting together this first book would help me learn about the publishing process," he said.

'Rat Tales' was released last week by Lulu, a print on-demand publishing company.

"Lulu look after the distribution for you," he said. "The nice thing is that the work is ready immediately. They can get you an ISBN number and help you distribute your book through Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble as long as you meet all the distribution requirements. For the rat book I didn't do that. I might do a new edition, if it is popular, and make it available through Amazon.com ."

The book is currently available at www.lulu.com.