Today our new Alberta volunteer Ennien drove her from Calgary to Cranbrook, BC from where she caught a flight with Pacific Coastal (if you fly within BC, please fly with Pacific Coastal, just a wonderful, caring airline!).

Ennien wrote the following about wee Wilma: "Oh she is just the friendliest, lickiest little girl! We played kissy-face peek-a-boo out my sleeve, she smiled at me, she bruxed near my ear aaaaaaaand used my jeans as her latrine because she was too comfy to crawl over to use the litterbox *LOL!* What a treasure this little girl is!"

For a rat free province, Alberta not only has gorgeous rats but also extremely sweet ratties! All 7 that have made a lucky escape are just wonderful little rattie ambassadors.

Wilma arrived safe and sound about 20 minutes ago and is exploring her new cage in her quarantine foster home.

On May 20, Animal Control in Las Cruces, New Mexico was called in to deal with a very large hoarding situation gone wrong. Several hundred rats were involved, and Animal Control started live-trapping them and delivering them to the Mesilla Valley Animal Service Center. The shelter had never dealt with that number of rats before, and was quickly overwhelmed.

A local Las Cruces rat advocate, Tiana, heard about the situation and went down to check it out herself. She found that despite stress and over-crowding, many of the rats were friendly, sociable, and surprisingly healthy. She adopted three rats on the spot, and began to contact other rat-lovers all around North America to try to get at least some of these pet-quality rats out of the shelter and into good homes.

Word went out, and several more rats were pulled by Lynn (who drove for 13 hours to get them into safety!) and adopted to good homes.

Rescues near and far began to take an interest, and organizations in California, Chicago, and even us here in Vancouver B.C. Canada said they had space to take some of these rats.

Unfortunately, there are no established rat rescue organizations in New Mexico, and the sheer distances involved seemed impossible to overcome. Meanwhile the media just made these rats look like monsters, the house was called "House of Horrors" (just google "Las Cruces NM rats" and lots of stories will pop up).

Murphy's Law was also hard at work: Tiana needed surgery and needless to say had to take it easy. Lynn who was willing to drive to Las Cruces again ended up breaking her ankle.

Then Travis, a pilot and private plane owner in Los Alamos NM, heard the news. Travis and his wife have helped many rats in need, and he immediately offered his transport services.

The New Mexico volunteer network began scrambling to find a way to put all these pieces together. Unfortunately, by the time we had succeeded, all rats had already left the shelter as they were given away on a "first come, first serve" basis and wildlife rescues as well as snake owners were lined up fast. It was absolutely heartbreaking for us as we tried so hard and were *this* close. We hope some of them found good homes or at least humane fates.

Once the Mesilla Valley shelter understood just how extensive and committed the rat lovers' network is, they agreed to hold the rest of the rats for us that they were trapping this week.

On Friday, May 28, Scott and Jean, two volunteers went to the shelter and picked up all the remaining rats. We ended up pulling 31 rats. These are the last ones, no more rats will be coming in from this situation.

The rats spent last night at Scott's in Las Cruces, who ended up falling in love with 3 of them and adopted them.

Travis and his wife flew the rats to their place in Los Alamos today and will foster them for a few weeks. Everyone seems to have taken the flight in stride and without difficulty.

Now in Los Alamos, all the rats will all be treated with Revolution, will get whatever veterinary care they need, and some females will have access to emergency spays.

In early July, Travis will be flying the rats destined for LMR and a few members of RatsPacNW to Seattle, WA so we'll soon have a whole bunch of PEWs looking for forever homes!

It's been a few very long days, full of ups and downs. What rescues goes, this was probably one of the hardest to pull off, it really seemed impossible at times, which makes it even more special that out of the hundreds of rats, at least 42 got a second chance!

LMR can't thank Lynn, Tiana, Scott, Jean, Travis and his wife enough for working so hard to get those ratties into safety!!! Many thanks also to the wonderful local people who offered to foster!

You can download it by clicking here.

Feel free to print it, crosspost it and/or forward it to your friends/family.

Hope you enjoy it!

*99% of our adopters are women however the boys (nor we) do not discriminate and would enjoy a daddy just as much! ;-)

This month marks the sad 1 year anniversary for Aldrin, Armstrong, Conrad and Dangerous Bean. The four handsome brothers have now been in rescue waiting for a forever home for a whole year... without even a single serious inquiry.

Unfortunately they do have a few strikes against them and it is something we see time and time again in rescue, not just in this case. There are four of them and we are no longer willing split them up into two pairs as it would just be too hard for them. They are VERY closely bonded. Yes, all four look identical at first glance but let us assure you that they all have very different markings on the back and most importantly very distinctive personalities. Yes, they won't jump right at the door and shower you with kisses right away because they just need to get to know you a bit better. And yes, they will stilt bolt occasionally if there's a sudden unknown noise.

BUT.... They are just lovely, lovely boys once you give them a chance and give them some time to warm up to you. Patience is key.. Once they know you, you can pick them up and snuggle. Two of them will give kisses. Little Armstrong will just melt in your arms. They will come to the door to beg for treats or their dinner. The four are a wonderful team, you can often find them snuggled together in a single hammock. Did I mention that they are super cute! They have these big button eyes and when they look at you, it just melts your heart.

Aldrin, Conrad, Armstrong and Dangerous Bean are now just over 1 year old and essentially have been in rescue since they were about 10-12 weeks old. They came from a DTES SRO where a man had over 100 rats as they were breeding like.. well... rats. They did miss out on crucial early socialization as there were just far too many rats. Although they are fine with the people that they know and trust, it really does take them some time to warm up to a new person. Because of that, we would like to see them in an experienced home.

The four boys are healthy, in great shape. They love to run up and down the ramps in their cage or in the rattie playpen. They love love love LOVE food and it's a great way to get them to trust you and win over their hearts.

More pictures can be found in their picture album.

Please get in touch with us if you're interested in giving these 4 wonderful boys a forever home!