"I knew nothing about rats, it was not easy to find useful information. Veterinarians for exotics were nowhere to be found in a provincial city in the early 90s. The rats were considered aggressive and dangerous lousy animals. The word rat, in these parts, evoked open sewers and diseases. Frau Inge enters my life on a midsummer night, year 1992. - About a month old - they told me. - She is not socialized,  in short, she is a little wild. She has passed the age to get used to people. She would not find adoption, she has a propensity to bite. Take it please. - First trip together, we return from Trieste. She is in a cage covered with a scarf. She is hidden, all the time. She trembles and if she moves she jerks. She makes a little impression on me and her muzzle and mustache, thet never stop. Her breath is very fast. - I suck you huh? I understand you ... me too I feel embarassed a little to be a human being. - At home (as long as I can stay here) I put her cage in a quiet corner of the room and I cook something. - She eats what you eat - they told me. - It’s a rat - they told me. - It will grow up. - I bring her some pasta with broccoli but she remains hidden in the mini cardboard den.

- Esco. I’ll be back after 10 minutes. - The food is gone. Good girl. At night I can’t sleep, with the teeths she continues to gnaw the bars and with her little hands she shakes them. I see her disconsolate, she shows all the desperation of a prisoner. I can’t make her live like this, I can’t give her life imprisonment, I hate cages and I can’t sleep. I don’t know you, you don’t know me, but there is enough room for two here. I open the cage door. I go to bed and look at her from a distance. Shyly, she goes out and hides under the wardrobe. The second day I see her at times. A lightning bolt that would like to be invisible. If I talk to her she gets scared, if I look at her she gets scared, let’s ignore each other dearly. By ignoring us it works. She starts to move more slowly, always ready to hide but a little bit more curious than before.."

- Marzia De Piero, 16.11.2019, Testimony of the early periods with her rat Inge

"I knew nothing about rats, it was not easy to find useful information. Veterinarians for exotics were nowhere to be found in a provincial city in the early 90s. The rats were considered aggressive and dangerous lousy animals. The word rat, in these parts, evoked open sewers and diseases. Frau Inge enters my life on a midsummer night, year 1992. - About a month old - they told me. - She is not socialized,  in short, she is a little wild. She has passed the age to get used to people. She would not find adoption, she has a propensity to bite. Take it please. - First trip together, we return from Trieste. She is in a cage covered with a scarf. She is hidden, all the time. She trembles and if she moves she jerks. She makes a little impression on me and her muzzle and mustache, thet never stop. Her breath is very fast. - I suck you huh? I understand you ... me too I feel embarassed a little to be a human being. - At home (as long as I can stay here) I put her cage in a quiet corner of the room and I cook something. - She eats what you eat - they told me. - It’s a rat - they told me. - It will grow up. - I bring her some pasta with broccoli but she remains hidden in the mini cardboard den.

- Esco. I’ll be back after 10 minutes. - The food is gone. Good girl. At night I can’t sleep, with the teeths she continues to gnaw the bars and with her little hands she shakes them. I see her disconsolate, she shows all the desperation of a prisoner. I can’t make her live like this, I can’t give her life imprisonment, I hate cages and I can’t sleep. I don’t know you, you don’t know me, but there is enough room for two here. I open the cage door. I go to bed and look at her from a distance. Shyly, she goes out and hides under the wardrobe. The second day I see her at times. A lightning bolt that would like to be invisible. If I talk to her she gets scared, if I look at her she gets scared, let’s ignore each other dearly. By ignoring us it works. She starts to move more slowly, always ready to hide but a little bit more curious than before.."

- Marzia De Piero, 16.11.2019, Testimony of the early periods with her rat Inge