A Warm Welcome to .... Meredith June 27, 2007

No pics, of course. Wouldn't want to break the cycle. A little over three weeks ago SARS (www.smallanimalrescue.org) picked up 50+ rats from a raided hoarder. We put our name in for one of the girls which turned out to be ***MEREDITH***. She is a lovely dark beige (mink?) colored dumbo girl who has been spayed. She was spayed because she was in with the boys and it wasn't known whether a bunch of ladies were pregnant and the last thing needed are litters.

We've never had a dumbo and I have always thought they were neat looking. For those that don't know, a dumbo rat has ears on the side of the head rather than on top, like regular rats. It's a different look. She is quite small and, of course, have no idea of the age. She is quite friendly but shy. She has already taken to the boys so she will be fine in the cage with all the others.

We are glad to have Meredith with us! Pics to come!!

Introducing...... Larry, Curley and Moe!

Actually, according to this pic, it is Curley, Larry and Moe. Curley is the lovely brown and white one, Larry is fully brown and Moe is a most striking beige boy with a red right eye/black left eye.

We introduced them to the household by promptly (within two weeks) getting them neutered. Welcome! Now they are with the Ladies and seem to be coming along nicely.

As with boy rats, they are lazy and complacent, more than happy to laze around on you (as this picture attests) and possibly fall asleep. They are easy to get along with and quick to trust. Moe seems to be the biggest baby of the three as he is usually the one to pass out first and also just loves to boggle. All the boys are bogglers and sleepers but Moe is the one who takes to it the best.

All three boys are about twice the size of the ladies and, in some cases, three times the size. These are the rats that people get upset about - big and dark. Have to say, though, that the list folx were right - boy rats are squishy babies. It's been a while and it has been a pleasure. I am so glad we gave boy rats a go. That doesn't mean we don't adore our ladies. ;)

I hope we can enjoy these gorgeous and friendly boys for a long, long time. Like most of the rats we have, we have NO idea of their age. I think they may be on the young side as they filled out significantly after we brought them home but that just might be more due to the "no empty bowl" policy we have for the beasts. However long it is, we will enjoy their presence!

Gone But Not Forgotten - Clementine

Our poor Clemmie. We took her into the vet's on June 18 to have her pts as she was not doing so well. On my usual check a while back, I saw she was growing a hard lump near her "bits" and from what we saw from Nibble, this wasn't a good thing. Also, she was an incessant barberer. Whether this was something she took to before she got her, I am not sure but it sure took hold after we had the injury to her mouth fixed. She seemed very compulsive about her grooming and wasn't happy with the slight deformity to her mouth (the equivalent of having a little bit of bottom lip taken away) after the injury. If a rat could have OCD, that would be our Clemmie.

Because of her OCD grooming, she had sores on her paws and a red mouth. We had tried three different antibiotics in case it was a rash/illness and also had her checked for mites (Ivermectin) twice. None of these took and it seemed that she just fussed herself into her situation.

After the lump was noticed we decided to let her go and keep an eye on her, as we had done with Nibble. Eventually, she became thinner and eventually started to bleed. On the second day, we knew that it was time to let her go. She was still able to eat but it seemed that the cancer had taken over. Because she was palliative, I never did a serious check on her as, with any rat, it was a big major ugly deal to check them over. We do it all the time but because we knew she was sick and didn't want to upset and stress her, we didn't bother. After she was gone, I checked her belly and it had spread pretty much through her belly and groin and there was a small lump on her spine.

Clemmie was a sweet girl. She wasn't overly friendly - as seems to be the case with the group of four ladies that we brought home from the same rescue group - but she was a curious and energetic girl. She did enjoy her cashews. She was the typical girl rat - not interested in staying still and visiting but wanting to run around and investigate. She came with Hilda and didn't seem to bond with the other girls but newcomer Moe seemed to take a shine to her and has been her companion since merging the boys and the girls.

Clemmie's passing feels a little sadder than the others. She was ill and had problems but was still insistent on being a typical girl rat. I honestly don't think there was a time she was with us when she was completely well. Between the mouth injury, barbering issues and the cancer she always had some kind of issue.

I feel like I've failed her somewhat - that there was something I could do about the barbering, about the sores, caught the mouth issue sooner, did something about her cancer but I guess with rats and their short life spans we do the best we could. She had food, companionship, a home and people who loved her.

She will be missed.

Emotional Blackmail

I realize that I am behind on posting about the folx that I have but came across a new situation.

Perusing Craigslist (managed to sell the Martin's cage) I saw an ad up for a young hairless lady. As I have this fascination for hairless rats, I had to find out more.

As always, the kid brought the rat home, mother is kind of horrified, kid gets bored, mother doesn't want to do the work and doesn't care for the animal and wants it gone. Yep. Okay. The rat is alone and in a hammie cage. Yep. Okay. As always, we have too many but can make the room. Husband's eyes roll the entire night.

After a few emails and me doing the majority of the work to get this done, we are set to meet at noon. Get a call about 45 min before the meeting. Kids running mom around, no time, too busy, disorganized. After a few minutes of trying to see about another time, another day I suggest that she call me back in the evening when she has a better idea of what is happening tomorrow for a time.

I remain polite even though to husband afterwards I get on my rant: No wonder the kid(s) have no sense of responsibility. Good thing I have no kids because hell would have frozen over before anything got done for them before this rat was taken care of. BLAH BLAH BLAH. %#@$%%^

We had kind of planned our day around the meet because we had a ton of other things to do ourselves. We can handle this. We end up hitting the mall in the spare time and spend money. Yippee.

Anyways, husband asks me what my inconvenience tolerance is.

Hence the title of this blog post - Emotional Blackmail.

I said well, I guess fairly limitless. I get this ill feeling in my stomach thinking about the poor animal getting the brunt of these a**h*les inability to be responsible and considerate. I guess as much as I can personally do I can't. I said I can't force the woman to show up to give me the animal.

Little did I know.

It is now Sunday night and no word. It's like they fell off the face of the earth. I did ask husband to call before we were heading out for a few hours to see if they were around. No answer. No call last night and as of now, no call. The woman wanted the rat out by Monday. I guess it isn't happening. I certainly hope it isn't going to be dumped anywhere out of "convenience's sake".

I couldn't make the call because I couldn't guarantee my level of politeness would have stayed appropriate at this point in time. We can't do anything more because at this point it would be highly inappropriate for us to keep badgering them. I can only hope that there was someone else more convenient for them to drop the rat off with, not just at a dead end or the SPCA doorstep.

This is why I do what I do - people like this. I am worried for the future in general. People like this are going to be in charge one day. We are already seeing the fruits of bad upbringing. Yes, I know it's just a $10 rat but it is still a being that feels fear and pain. We domesticated this animal and took away it's survival skills and then to... well... the most polite thing I can say is "be irresponsible".

I don't know. I'm at a loss. Between the disregard for the animal and the disregard for me as a person (courtesy, anyone?), I'm not sure what to think. I relook the conversations. I ask husband (who heard my side of all conversations and saw the emails - as he always does with possible newbie rats) if maybe I was rude or gave her a bad feeling or spooked her. He said that I did nothing wrong, that there was no reason for this except her shortcomings. She seemed concerned about making sure the rat wouldn't become food. That's why I am baffled. If nothing wrong was said or bad feelings, then.....

I just hope the poor rat will be okay.

Catching Up

It's been awhile and have pics but been busy and lazy trying to sort out health and job issues. The Boys have settled in nicely, their operations have gone wonderfully, Albie's lump removal has gone wonderfully - we are still watching for signs of cancer and the new cage has gone wonderfully. Details forthcoming!